She stands tall, naked, her eyes focused, face without emotion. Her bow is taught as her muscles, and she eyes down the arrow shaft to her target, waiting, waiting to let it fly. Would she send it into an unprotected heart? Is this a bluff or a threat?
She is naturally feminine; accoutrements of long hair and makeup wouldn’t make her any more so. I stare because she is beautifully formed, muscular, with smooth rounded curves. There is no sag in her breasts and her nipples are firm. My reaction to her is visceral, an animal attraction to her physical perfection.
“Why are you naked?” I ask … but she is mute, no answer is forth coming? The power in her pose and determination in her eyes seize my attention and I now feel more curiosity than sexual attraction. I look to see what she is aiming at, but there is no obvious target in her line of sight.
“Why are you here?” I ask, not really expecting an answer, more only to focus my curiosity. She is steadfastly mute. I realize I need to find my own answers and study her further for evidence. Is she really just one woman, or is she the amalgamation of exquisite feminine traits?
I have more questions, but there is not much more I can perceive from her directly. Broadening my scope, I look at her context. She is there, in a quiet grove, among statues of centaurs and Hun warriors; each are as enigmatic and mute as she. No answers here.
I finally look inside myself and ask, “What does she do to me?” and I finally understand. She is beauty in a beautiful setting.
As a man, I feel viscerally, the physical perfection of this young, athletic woman of child bearing age. I feel a longing and desire, as I am meant to; but I also feel an appreciation of her as a strong person with her own purpose. A person doing something important, and maybe fraught with danger.
I now understand that the synergistic beauty of this statue is that it shows both at the same time.
Author’s Note: This sculpture of the Archer is found just beside the National Gallery in Berlin.