126DIORAMASapplication in the human form, or in artifacts. Decorum was the enno-
bling factor in realistic, classical representation—it was the most insidious
facet of realism, the element that could subliminally shape our concep-
tions of race, class, gender, and sexuality without us realizing it. In clas-
sical art as well as in culture, decorum was a normative agent, governing the
appropriateness of the occasion, and capable of distancing societal groups
by assigning gender-specific roles to those from certain social classes and
races. It was capable of crystallizing acceptable behaviors by inscribing
ethical and moral standards based on a discerning of otherness in which
the other was always inferior and undesirable. Thus decorum would sup-
port social segregation by reverberating the moral and ethical standards
set by aristocratic, white males—it produced models to follow and aspire
to, which substantially shaped ideals of white supremacy linked to social
Darwinist notions of civilization. For instance, the respectability of black
individuals in the Victorian period was regularly evaluated through the
analysis of their acquired gentility, their ability to emulate the decorum
FIGURE 3.6 Antonio Canova, Theseus and the Centaur, 1804–1819. Marble. Kunsthis-
torisches Museum, Vienna. CC BY-SA 3.0.