The Narrative Within

Swings are not just for playgrounds. At the Museum of Heraklion in Crete, there’s a delicious little statue from Hagia Triada of a woman on a swing.  It dates c. 1450 BC.

In the Italian province of South Tyrol exists a 7^th century affresco of St. Proculus sitting on a swing.

And in an album of genre paintings by the Korean painter Shin Yunbok (born in 1753), there’s a tender little painting of a woman climbing onto a swing as a group of women wash themselves in a stream.

Probably the most famous swing painting is L’Escarpolette by Jean-Honoré Fragonard.  It portrays a woman in a swing who, as she’s pushed by an old man, lefts up her legs high for her lover to see.  And, like Cinderella, she loses a shoe.

The Greeks also had an interest in swings as many of their vases can testify.

So it looks like swingers have been around for  awhile!