Fresco. From the House of Punished Love, Pompeii.
90. Anonymous, Depiction of “Coitus a Tergo”, 1st century CE.
Ancient Roman. Fresco. Pompeii.
91. Anonymous, Erotic Scene.
Ancient Roman. Fresco. Wall painting from Pompeii.
92. Anonymous, Pan with Hermaphroditus, c. 54–68 CE.
Ancient Roman. Fresco. Atrium of the House of Dioscuri, Nero’s reign, Pompeii. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.
93. Anonymous, Erotic Scene from the Suburban Baths of Pompeii.
Ancient Roman. Fresco. Pompeii.
94. Anonymous, Couple, known as Venus Pendula, 1st century CE.
Ancient Roman. Fresco. House of the Vettii, Pompeii.
95. Anonymous, Herakles, the Founding Hero of Herculaneum, 1st-2nd century BCE.
Ancient Roman. Fresco. College of Augustales, Herculaneum. Near Naples.
The founder of Herculaneum, Hercules (Latin form of Greek Herakles) is one of the most popular heroes of Antiquity. Demigod, son of Zeus and Alcmene, spouse of King Amphitryon, he personifies strength and courage. Legend holds that at birth his aunt Hera sent two serpents to devour him in his crib, but the infant strangled them with his own hands. After various exploits, he went to Argos where he married Megara, daughter of Creon, King of Thebes. But having been made insane by the evil machinations of his aunt, Hercules killed his wife and children. To expiate this crime he was sentenced to obey one of his most ardent enemies, King Eurystheus. The latter imposed a series of ordeals known as the Labours of Hercules. Besides these famous twelve labours, Hercules travelled the world, armed, as seen here, with his club that only he could handle and that allowed him to exterminate tyrants, bandits and monsters.
96. Anonymous, Priapus, c. 10 °CE.
Ancient Roman. Fresco. Pompeii.
97. Anonymous, Leda and the Swan, 3rd century CE.
Ancient Roman. Mosaic. Museum of Nicosia, Nicosia (Cyprus).
98. Anonymous, Statue of Antinous, Favourite of Emperor Hadrian, c. 130–138 CE.
Ancient Roman. Marble, height: 199 cm. Archaeological Museum of Delphi, Delphi.
99. Anonymous, Pugilist, c. 1st-2nd century CE.
Ancient Roman. Marble, height: 174 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
100. Anonymous, Artemis of Ephesus, 2nd century CE.
Bronze and alabaster. Ancient Near East. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.
The Middle Ages
101. Anonymous, Adam and Eve with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (miniature from the Codex Aemilianensis), 994 CE.
Romanesque. Real Biblioteca de San Lorenzo, Escorial.
The rise of Christianity in Europe had, on the whole, a repressive effect on the development of erotic art. Although the early years of Christianity were congruent with Late Antiquity and with the ideals of that time, Christian theology soon began to effect changes in attitudes towards both sexuality and art. In the late 4th and early 5th centuries, Saint Augustine (known as one of the “Four Fathers of the Latin Church”) established some of the basic theological beliefs that were to remain dominant for centuries to come. For Augustine, lust was among the gravest of sins, and had led to the original sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Augustine’s repeated condemnations of lust and his advocacy of chastity created the belief that the body was a vehicle for sin. Sexual representations, and sexuality in general, were thus surrounded with guilt. In fact, among the few specific representations of sexuality in the Middle Ages were symbolic depictions of the sin of lust, personified as a nude figure (usually a woman) with a toad biting at the genitals, and sometimes with snakes biting the breasts.
Medieval images of nude figures were nearly always connected with sin, especially in the case of Adam and Eve. Shown in the Garden of Eden, they were most commonly depicted after the Temptation, when they displayed shame at their nudity by trying to cover themselves. Among the most famous medieval nudes is the Romanesque lintel sculpture in the Cathedral of Saint-Lazare at Autun, in which Eve reclines (fig. 111), reaching behind to grasp the forbidden fruit. Such highly stylised representations were typical of medieval art. For most of the era, the Church focused on preparing Christians for the afterlife. Entry into Heaven required avoidance of the myriad sins of the earthly realm. As the earthly world was seen as a constant source of temptation and a mere stopping place on the way to ultimate redemption, accurate representation (particularly of our sinful bodies) was not encouraged.
Such attitudes began to change in the late Middle Ages, particularly following the example of Saint Francis in the 13th century. Francis taught that the entire world was God’s divine creation, and that our bodies were made in God’s image and were thus divine. This began a moderation of Augustine’s prudish teachings about human bodies, which led to the more naturalistic imagery of the 14th and early 15th centuries. Subject matter remained focused on religion, but was increasingly illusionistic. The Italian painter Giotto was the most famous technical innovator in this regard, but the Limbourg Brothers, working for the Dukes of Burgundy in France, showed a greater degree of realism in their subjects.
In this period when Europe was rarely interested in sexual subjects, India saw erotic art on a scale never rivalled before or since. At a time when Judeo-Christian taboo reigned over sexuality in European art and society, India took a radically unrestrained approach to sexuality, as evidenced by the free exploration of sexual positions in the Kama Sutra. Later, during the 11th and 12th centuries, the Chandela Dynasty of rulers in central India built dozens of temples at Khajuraho that prominently featured groups of figures in an enormous variety of sexual positions. While the specific purpose of these figures remains unclear, many varieties of Hinduism revered sexuality as sacred; some devotional acts involved worship of the linga, a stylised penis. These Hindu sculptures are among the most famous and explicit examples of erotic art of any time.
102. Anonymous, Erotic Positions, Vishvanath Temple, Upper Band of the North Wall, c. 95 °CE.
Indian art. Sandstone. Khajuraho (India).
103. Anonymous, Ariadne and her Cortege, early 6th century CE.
Byzantine. Ivory, 40 × 14 cm. Musée national du Moyen Age, Thermes de Cluny, Paris.
104. Anonymous, Lust, 12th century.
Romanesque. Marble, 111 × 40 × 26 cm. Musée des Augustins, Toulouse.
105. Anonymous, Lajja Gauri (fertility goddess), beginning of the 9th century.
Indian art. Stone. The Archaeological Museum,