Erotic art
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Erotic art is a broad field of the visual arts that includes any artistic work intended to evoke arousal. It usually depicts human nudity or sexual activity, and has included works in various visual mediums, including drawings, engravings, films, video games, paintings, photographs, and sculptures. Some of the earliest known works of art include erotic themes, which have recurred with varying prominence in different societies throughout history.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> However, it has also been widely considered taboo, with either social norms or laws restricting its creation, distribution, and possession. This is particularly the case when it is deemed pornographic, immoral, or obscene.
DefinitionEdit
The definition of erotic art can be subjective because it is dependent on context, as perceptions of what is erotic and what is art vary. A sculpture of a phallus in some cultures may be considered a traditional symbol of potency rather than overtly erotic. Material that is produced to illustrate sex education may be perceived by others as inappropriately erotic. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines erotic art as "art that is made with the intention to stimulate its target audience sexually, and that succeeds to some extent in doing so".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
A distinction is often made between erotic art and pornography, which also depicts scenes of sexual activity and is intended to evoke erotic arousal. Pornography is not usually considered fine art. People may draw a distinction based on the work's intent and message: erotic art would be works intended for purposes in addition to arousal, which could be appreciated as art by someone uninterested in their erotic content. US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart wrote in 1964 that the distinction was intuitive, saying about hard-core pornography which would not be legally protected as erotic art, "I know it when I see it".<ref>Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184, 197 (1964).</ref>
Others, including philosophers Matthew Kieran<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and Hans Maes,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Maes, Hans. Ed. Pornographic Art and the Aesthetics of Pornography, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.Template:Page needed</ref> have argued that no strict distinction can be made between erotic art and pornography.
HistoricalEdit
Among the oldest surviving examples of erotic depictions are Paleolithic cave paintings and carvings, but many cultures have created erotic art. Artifacts have been discovered from ancient Mesopotamia depicting explicit heterosexual sex.<ref name="BlackGreen1992">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="NemetNejat">Template:Cite book</ref> Glyptic art from the Sumerian Early Dynastic Period frequently shows scenes of frontal sex in the missionary position.<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> In Mesopotamian votive plaques from the early second millennium BC, the man is usually shown entering the woman from behind while she bends over, drinking beer through a straw.<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> Middle Assyrian lead votive figurines often represent the man standing and penetrating the woman as she rests on top of an altar.<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/>
Scholars have traditionally interpreted all these depictions as scenes of ritual sex,<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> but they are more likely to be associated with the cult of Inanna, the goddess of sex and prostitution.<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> Many sexually explicit images were found in the temple of Inanna at Assur,<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> which also contained models of male and female sexual organs,<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> including stone phalli, which may have been worn around the neck as an amulet or used to decorate cult statues,<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> and clay models of the female vulva.<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/>
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Depictions of sexual intercourse were not part of the general repertory of ancient Egyptian formal art,<ref name="Gay1993">Template:Cite book</ref> but rudimentary sketches of heterosexual intercourse have been found on pottery fragments and in graffiti.<ref name="Gay1993"/> The Turin Erotic Papyrus (Papyrus 55001) is an Template:Convert by Template:Convert Egyptian papyrus scroll discovered at Deir el-Medina,<ref name="Gay1993"/><ref name=oconnor2001>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the last two-thirds of which consist of a series of twelve vignettes showing men and women in various sexual positions.<ref name=oconnor2001/> The men in the illustrations are "scruffy, balding, short, and paunchy" with exaggeratedly large genitalia<ref name=schmidt2000>Template:Cite book</ref> and do not conform to Egyptian standards of physical attractiveness.<ref name="Gay1993"/><ref name=schmidt2000/> The women are nubile,<ref name="Gay1993"/><ref name=schmidt2000/> and they are shown with objects from traditional erotic iconography, such as convolvulus leaves. In some scenes, they hold items traditionally associated with Hathor, the goddess of love, such as lotus flowers, monkeys, and sacred instruments called sistra.<ref name="Gay1993"/><ref name=schmidt2000/> The scroll was probably painted in the Ramesside period (1292–1075 BC)<ref name=oconnor2001/> and its high artistic quality indicates that was produced for a wealthy audience.<ref name=oconnor2001/> No other similar scrolls have been discovered.<ref name="Gay1993"/>
Larco Museum, Lima. 300 CE
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The ancient Greeks painted sexual scenes on their ceramics, many of them famous for being some of the earliest depictions of same-sex relations and pederasty, and there are many sexually explicit paintings on the walls of ruined Roman buildings in Pompeii. The Moche of Peru are another ancient people who sculpted explicit scenes of sex into their pottery.<ref>Chambers, M., Leslie, J. & Butts, S. (2005) Pornography: the Secret History of Civilization [DVD], Koch Vision.</ref> There is an entire gallery devoted to pre-Columbian erotic ceramics (Moche culture) in Lima at the Larco Museum. Edward Perry Warren adapted a love for Greek Art during college and collected Greek erotic art pieces that often represented gay sexual relationships, such as the Warren Cup, a Greco-Roman drinking cup which features scenes of anal sex between males. Many of Warren's eclectic pieces collected over the years are in the Boston Museum of Fine Art.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Caliph Al-Walid II, who ruled the Umayyad Caliphate in the 8th century, was a great patron of erotic art. Among the depictions of the Qusayr Amra, which were built by him, is the abundance of naked females and love scenes.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
There is a long tradition of erotic art in Eastern cultures. In Japan, for example, shunga appeared in the 13th century and continued to grow in popularity until the late 19th century when photography was invented.<ref name="shunga">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In Japan during the Edo period (1600–1869), Shunga, translated to "spring pictures", was a series of sexually explicit paintings created with ink or woodblock works that became printed onto paper scrolls as an introduction to sexual education. Shunga, embraced by individuals as part of the Shinto religion, focused on liberating the innate sexual beings that are within all humans, including women and homosexual sexuality. Couples engaging in sexual acts were shown laughing and enjoying the sexual encounter with their partner; this focused on the positivity of sex.
Around 1700, shunga was met with opposition and banned in Japan, but the circulation of this prominent Erotic Art continued. Shunga could be found in local libraries and homes of many Japanese citizens.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Similarly, the erotic art of China (known as Chungongtu) reached its popular peak during the latter part of the Ming dynasty.<ref>Bertholet, L. C. P. (1997) "Dreams of Spring: Erotic Art in China", in: Bertholet Collection, Pepin Press (October, 1997) Template:ISBN.</ref> In India, the famous Kama Sutra is an ancient sex manual that is still popularly read throughout the world.<ref>Daniélou, A., trans. (1993) The Complete Kama Sutra: the first unabridged modern translation, Inner Traditions. Template:ISBN.Template:Page needed</ref>
In Europe, starting with the Renaissance, there was a tradition of producing erotica for the amusement of the aristocracy. I Modi was an erotic book with engravings of sexual scenes by Marcantonio Raimondi that were based on designs by Giulio Romano. I Modi was thought to be created in around 1524 to 1527.
In 1601, Caravaggio painted the Amor Vincit Omnia for the collection of the Marquis Vincenzo Giustiniani.
An erotic cabinet, ordered by Catherine the Great, seems to have been adjacent to her suite of rooms in the Gatchina Palace. The furniture was eccentric, with tables that had large penises for legs. Penises and vaginas were carved on the furniture and the walls were covered in erotic art. The rooms and the furniture were seen in 1941 by two Wehrmacht-officers but they seem to have vanished since then.<ref>Igorʹ Semenovich Kon and James Riordan, Sex and Russian Society page 18.</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A documentary by Peter Woditsch suggests that the cabinet was in the Peterhof Palace and not in Gatchina.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Includes trailer of the documentary by Peter Woditsch.</ref>
The tradition was continued by other, more modern painters, such as Fragonard, Courbet, Millet, Balthus, Picasso, Edgar Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and Egon Schiele. Schiele served time in jail and had several works destroyed by the authorities for offending contemporary mores with his depictions of nude girls.
By the 20th century, photography became the most common medium for erotic art. Publishers like Taschen mass-produced erotic illustrations and erotic photography.
20th century onwardsEdit
Many erotic artists worked in the 1910s. Much of the genre is still not as well accepted as the more standard genres of art such as portraiture and landscape. Erotic depictions in art went through a fundamental repositioning over the course of the 20th century. Early 20th century movements in art such as cubism, futurism, and German expressionism explored the erotic through manipulating the nude to explore multiple viewpoints, colour experimentation, and the simplification of the figure into geometrical components.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In the mid 20th century, realism and surrealism offered new modes of representation of the nude. For surrealist artists, the erotic became a way of exploring ideas of fantasy, the unconscious and the dream state.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> Artist's such as Paul Delvaux, Giorgio de Chirico and Max Ernst are well-known surrealist artist's that dealt with the erotic directly. In the aftermath of the First World War, a shift away from abstracted human figures of the 1920s and 1930s towards realism took place. Artists such as British artist Stanley Spencer led this re-appropriated approach to the human figure in Britain, with naked self-portraits of himself and his second wife in erotic settings This is explicitly evident in his work Double nude portrait, 1937.<ref name=":0" />
The naked portrait was arguably becoming a category of erotic art that was dominating the 20th century, just as the academic nude had dominated the 19th century.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Critical writings on the 'nude' and in particular the female 'nude', meant fundamental shifts in how depictions of the nude and the portrayal of sexuality were being considered. Seminal texts such as British Art historian Kenneth Clark's The nude: a study of ideal art in 1956 and Art Critic John Berger in 1972 in his book Ways of Seeing, were re-examining the notion of the naked and the nude within art. This period in art was defined by an acute engagement with the political. It marked a historical moment that stressed the importance of the sexual revolution upon art.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The 1960s and 1970s were a time of social and political change across the United States and Europe. Movements included the fight for equality for women with a focus on sexuality, reproductive rights, the family, and the workplace. Artists and historians began to investigate how images in Western art and the media, were often produced within a male narrative and particularly how it perpetuated idealisations of the female subject.<ref name=":1" /> The questioning and interrogation of the overarching male gaze within the historical art narrative, manifested in both critical writing and artistic practice, came to define much of the mid to late 20th century art and erotic art.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> American Art Historian Carol Duncan summarises the male gaze and its relationship to erotic art, writing "More than any other theme, the nude could demonstrate that art originates in and is sustained by male erotic energy. This is why many 'seminal' works of the period are nudes."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Artists such as Sylvia Sleigh is an example of this reversal of the male gaze as her work depicts male sitters presented in traditional erotic reclining poses that usually were reserved for the female nude as part of the 'odalisque' tradition.<ref name=":0" />
The rise of feminism, the sexual revolution and conceptual art in the mid 20th century meant that the interaction between the image and audience, and the artist and audience, were beginning to be questioned and redefined, opening up new possible areas of practice. Artists began to use their own nude bodies and began to depict an alternative narrative of the erotic, through new lenses.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> New media was beginning to be used to portray the nude and the erotic, with performance and photography being used by women artists, to draw attention to issues of gender power relations and the blurred boundaries between pornography and art.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Artists such as Carolee Schneemann, and Hannah Wilke were using these new mediums to interrogate the constructs of gender roles and sexuality. Wilke's photographs, for instance, satirised the mass objectification of the female body in pornography and advertising.<ref name=":0" />
Performance art since the 1960s has flourished and is considered as a direct response and challenge to traditional types of media and was associated with the dematerialization of the artwork or object. As performance that dealt with the erotic flourished in the 1980s and 1990s both male and female artists were exploring new strategies of representation of the erotic.<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Martha Edelheit was a female artist known for her contributions to erotic art as a rebellious stance against typical gender roles, which excluded women artists from participating in free sexual expression. This limited women to often be the subject of many famous Erotic Art pieces which catered to men. Edelheit was criticized for being a female artist who created erotic artwork during a time where men were main contributors in this art. Edelheit was a pioneer in the feminist art movement because she was a woman who created erotic art and also depicted herself in many of her works, which paved the way for women's equality in sexual expression.
Edelheit confronted the common stereotype that this art was pornographic by offering an alternative view of oneself. Her works paved the way for women to openly express sexual desires. Painting nude male subjects were uncommon in the 1970s; her Art turned the tables and allowed for women to be at the forefront of this fem expression revolution that occurred in the 70s.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
The acceptance and popularity of erotic art has pushed the genre into mainstream pop-culture and has created many famous icons. Frank Frazetta, Luis Royo, Boris Vallejo, Chris Achilleos, and Clyde Caldwell are among the artists whose work has been widely distributed. The Guild of Erotic Artists was formed in 2002 to bring together a body of like-minded individuals whose sole purpose was to express themselves and promote the sensual art of erotica for the modern age.<ref>For an overview, see Eberhard and Phyllis Kronhausen: Erotic Art. Carroll & Graf Publishers, New York 1993, Template:ISBN</ref>
Between 2010 and 2015 sexologist and gallerist Laura Henkel, curator of the Erotic Heritage Museum and the Sin City Gallery, organised 12 Inches of Sin, an exhibition focussing on art that expresses a diverse view of sexuality and challenging ideas of high and low art.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The erotic continues to be explored and employed in new types of art work today and the profound developments of the 20th century still underpin much of the prevailing erotic art and artistic intent.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Legal standardsEdit
Whether or not an instance of erotic art is obscene depends on the standards of the jurisdiction and community in which it is displayed.
In the United States, the 1973 ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States in Miller v. California established a three-tiered test to determine what was obscene—and thus not protected, versus what was merely erotic and thus protected by the First Amendment.
Delivering the opinion of the court, Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote,
The basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be: (a) whether 'the average person, applying contemporary community standards' would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.<ref>Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 24 (1973).</ref>
As this is still much vaguer than other judicial tests within U.S. jurisprudence, it has not reduced the conflicts that often result, especially from the ambiguities concerning what the "contemporary community standards" are. Similar difficulties in distinguishing between erotica and obscenity have been found in other legal systems.
GalleryEdit
- Vulve stylisée.JPG
A palaeolithic petroglyph of a vulva
- Erotic plaque depicting an intercourse between a male and a female in a missionary position. From Iraq, Old Babylonian Period, 2000-1500 BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul.jpg
Sex between a female and a male. Terracotta plaque. Old Babylonian Period. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul, around 2000–1500 BCE
- Relief - earthenware - Rijksmuseum van Oudheden 1.jpg
Anal sex between two males. Drinking cup. Greek; archaic period. 550-500 BCE
- Engraved Scaraboid, Greco-Persian, 4th century B.C.jpg
Sex between a female and a male. Engraved scaraboid (gem), White chalcedony. Greco-Persian. 4th century BCE
- Shuvalov Painter ARV 1208 41 love-making (02).jpg
Oinochoe by the Shuvalov Painter, around 430–420 BCE
- 2014-01-26 Symposium Tableware with erotic motif Inv. 1993.252 Altes Museum anagoria.JPG
Bell Krater. Ancient Greek. Late 5th to 4th century BCE
- Ancient Greek Oval gem with an erotic scene.jpg
Engraving of a sexual scene on an ancient Greek gem. Late 5th to early 4th century BCE
- Cratere con simposio bacchico detta tazza cesi o vaso torlonia, da s. cecilia in trastevere o s. francesco a ripa, poi villa cesi e poi albani, 110-90 ca ca., MT 297, 03 ninfa addormentata.jpg
A sleeping Hermaphrodite being viewed. Krater. Marble. Ancient Greek. 110 - 90BCE
- Bottom of a clay bowl. Hermitage Museum - 2.jpg
Bottom of a clay bowl. Ancient Roman? Ancient Greek? Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
- Stirrup Spout Bottle with Couple MET 65.266.62.jpeg
Ceramic vessel. Moche, Peru. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 300–600 CE.
- LarcoErotique (39).jpg
Ceramic vessel. Pre-Columbian. Larco Museum, Lima.
- LarcoErotique (41).jpg
Ceramic vessel. Pre-Columbian. Larco Museum, Lima.
- LarcoErotique (24).jpg
Ceramic vessels. Pre-Columbian. Larco Museum, Lima.
- LarcoErotique (23).jpg
Ceramic vessel. Pre-Columbian. Larco Museum, Lima.
- LarcoErotique (40).jpg
Ceramic vessel. Pre-Columbian. Larco Museum, Lima.
- 2 Erotic Kama statues of Khajuraho Hindu Temple de Lakshmana Khajurâho India 2013.jpg
Tantric carving from the Lakshmana Temple, Khajuraho, India
- Meister des Mahâjanaka Jâtaka 001.jpg
Frescos. Ajanta caves, 6th–7th century CE
- Ajanta, ceiling of Cave 1.jpg
Fresco. Ajanta caves. 6th–7th century CE
- SheelaWiki.jpg
Sheela na Gig at Kilpeck, England, 12th century
- Evocation de la sodomie Hôtel-de-Ville de Saint-Quentin (France).jpg
Hôtel-de-Ville de Saint-Quentin. Saint-Quentin, France. Between 1331 to 1509
- Masturbation - sculpture Hôtel-de-Ville de Saint-Quentin.jpg
Masturbation. Hôtel-de-Ville de Saint-Quentin. Saint-Quentin, France. Between 1331 to 1509.
- Allegory of April - Francesco del Cossa - 1.jpg
CitationClass=web }}</ref> Fresco in the Schifanoia Palace, Ferrara. Around 1469
- Sculpture - Dated to around 1530 - Kranichfeld.jpg
CitationClass=web }}</ref> Upper castle, Kranichfeld, Thuringia. Around 1530.<ref name=reference01/>
- Carracci Jupiter et Junon.jpg
Jupiter and Juno. Jacques Joseph Coiny. 1798.
- 21 xuancunghoa (12).JPG
Spring Palace Illustration (also known as Chungongtu,春宮圖). Qing dynasty. 1636–1912.
- A man enjoying an erotic dalliance with two boys, seated on Wellcome V0047309.jpg
Chinese Erotic Art. Gouache painting. Date of creation uncertain 1800 to 1899.
- Katsushika Hokusai - Fukujuso.jpg
Hokusai, The Adonis Plant (Fukujusō), 1815
- The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife, British Museum, version 1 (cropped).jpg
Hokusai, The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife, c. 1820
- PeterJohannNepomukGeigerEroticWatercolor04.jpg
Erotic scene. Watercolour. Peter Johann Nepomuk Geiger. 1840.
- Still life of roses and fruit with concealed erotic scenes. Wellcome V0018458.jpg
A painting of an erotic scene behind a painting of figs and a tomato. Summonte. 1800 to 1899?
- Still life of roses and fruit with concealed erotic scenes. Wellcome V0018457.jpg
An erotic scene on the reverse side of the painting of figs and a tomato by Summonte. 1800 to 1899?
- Men engaging in anal sex, Safavid painting, 1720.jpg
Anal sex between two males. Watercolour on paper. Around 1880 - 1926
- Édouard-Henri Avril (1).jpg
Paul avril, illustration for Fanny Hill, 1907
- Erotic soldiers by Achille Devéria 09 With Napoleon Bonaparte.jpg
Erotic soldiers by Achille Devéria
- Leingarten-viktor-europasti.jpg
Hyperrealistic sculpture of lascivious princess Europa by German sculptor Georg Viktor, 2014
- Origin-of-the-World.jpg
See alsoEdit
- Artistic freedom
- Blue Movie by Andy Warhol
- Dionysism art
- Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum
- Erotic comics
- Erotic photography
- Fantastic art
- Fetish art
- Golden Age of Porn
- Hentai
- History of erotic depictions
- I Modi
- Lesbian erotica
- Nude (art)
- Pin-up model
- Pornography
- Pregnancy in art
- Sex in advertising
- Sex in film
- Sexual arousal
- Yiff
- Zazel
- Khajuraho Group of Monuments
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- 10 Best Erotic Works of Art, The Guardian
- Erotic Art, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Erótica graphical history, The nude in art history. (Spanish)
- Erotic Art – Shunga Gallery - Artistic and Intellectual Presentations.
- Honesterotica.com, Erotic illustration from late Victorian to the present day.
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