"If I had been born one or two hundred years ago, I might have been a sculptor," commented Robert Mapplethorpe on his artistic impulses, "but photography is a very quick way to see, to make sculpture." This catalog, based on a joint exhibit with the Guggenheim and Hermitage museums, is illustrated with 120 color and duotone plates of Mapplethorpe's powerful figural and portrait images next to 16th-century Mannerist drawings and sculpture, placing his work firmly in the context of classical studies of form and subject. Among the images are the chiseled physiques of Lisa Lyon, Derrick Cross, and a young Arnold Schwarzenegger. The catalogue also traces Mapplethorpe's complex relationship to the history of art more broadly, ranging from Neoclassicism to Surrealism, with comparisons to the work of Jacques-Louis David, Antonio Canova, Auguste Rodin, and Man Ray.