Author Description

"Through scholarly essays and sumptuous reproductions, this catalogue examines the obsessive themes of beauty, love, and classical art. The photographer Robert Mapplethorpe's relationships to sculpture - namely, the study of the human body - and the elongated, elaborate forms of Mannerist art illuminates the underlying classicism evident in the clarity and sensual potency of all his subjects, as well as their explosive energy."--BOOK JACKET.