Dialogues of the Courtesans

The lithographs of female nudes Maillol produced for Dialogues of the Courtesans come closest to the sculptural monumentality of his marbles and bronzes. Drawn directly from the model, they reflect his preference for the stocky Mediterranean women of his native countryside. The text is a literary form that the Greek satirist Lucian invented, known as the comic dialogue. The conversations included in this classic volume, which Lucian would have recited in his frequent public readings, involve hetaerae, or courtesans-mistresses of great allure and accomplishment. The rhetorician was good-natured toward this familiar aspect of Athenian culture, portraying the women as gossipy and scheming, but also capable of loyalty and sincere feeling.