weighing up, consideration, or a subtle assessment of the other’s feelings – which characterises 17th century erotic literature, defined as amour passion – plays no part in erotic novels of the Renaissance period,” writes Hiltrud Gnüg in her study, Der erotische Roman (The Erotic Novel). In his Illustrated History of Morals, Eduard Fuchs explores the “mutual forms of courtship” in the Renaissance:
At the beginning of the Middle Ages, the forms of courtship were extremely primitive in almost all classes and nearly all countries, and thus consisted largely of what was called the primitive forms of gallantry. In other words, both genders paid each other homage almost exclusively in the unambiguous terms of “hands-on” intimacies. Eyes and hands assumed and were given every right. Certainly, procedure was coarser and more direct in peasant than in middle-class or aristocratic circles; and, again, German nobles were more uncouth than those from Italy or Spain, but in all cases one was concerned with differences of degree, not of character.
He closes with this conclusion: “To sum up, love on both sides followed the principle of the swiftest possible procedure.”
It was the evolution of civilisation which produced ever stricter controls on the expression of emotion, and that encompassed love in all its manifestations. By the 18th century, erotic libertinism no longer meant openly admitting to one’s erotic inclinations, the direct and undisguised expression of one’s desire. From this point on what was demanded was the art of indicating feelings without settling on one particular form of expression.
François Boucher, Blonde Odalisque, 1752. Oil on canvas, 59 × 73 cm. Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
The Golden Age of Eroticism
The Duke of Orléans’ “fêtes d’Adam”
Versailles, built by Louis XIV, became the glorious paradigm of all royal and princely residences in Europe. From early on, the French court, with its luxury and free morals, set the tone for a country which was entirely devoted to enjoyment and love.
In his memoirs, the Duke of Saint-Simon wrote the following about life at the Court of Versailles: “In his young days, Louis XIV was made for love like none of his subjects.” Louis needed only to drop his perfumed handkerchief at the feet of a beautiful woman; this signal was enough to put the woman so selected into a state of readiness for love. Here, no regard was paid to husbands. However, anyone who honoured the favour thus bestowed on his wife rose in rank and was rewarded with estates, pensions, or cash.
In each of his palaces and castles, the “Sun King” had an elaborate bed, which served him less as a place to sleep – either alone or with someone – than as a location in which to display his power. His nephew, Philippe d’Orléans (1674–1723), who was Regent until Louis XIV’s maturity, was quite different. He was not interested in the traditional, rigid lit de justice: the start of the 18th century is marked by Philippe’s reaction to relative prudery at the old Sun King’s court. Philippe adored comfortable beds, which he called his “love nests”. Raised and trained in the art of depravity by the Abbé Dubois, who later became a Cardinal and Minister and was considered – even in those days – one of the most out-and-out roués. For him, love was nothing but a courtly, convenient catchword for unrestricted sexual intercourse, the faire l’amour which he practised in such a blatant, uninhibited way that his mother, Liselotte von der Pfalz, accused him in her coarse way of using women like a night-stool:
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