be seen in this book. Many of these pictures and objects were forbidden in a Western society that was less open to sexuality and anything associated with it. Hence they grant us a rare and, therefore, fascinating glimpse of what is part and parcel of human nature. Pictures of the pleasures of the flesh contained here promise a feast for the eyes, albeit a distanced pleasure. Yet, is not the essence of eroticism that it should be just beyond reach?
The cultural history of humankind can extend the limits of tolerance by helping to expand the viewer’s opinion. It can also liberate minds from the clichés that may occupy our fantasies and imagination. Reading this book will hopefully achieve both these ends.
Prehistory and Antiquity
1. Anonymous, Venus, c. 29,000–25,000 BCE.
Palaeolithic. Dolní Vistonics, (Czech Republic). Burnt clay, 11.1 × 4.3 cm. Private collection.
Among the earliest evidence of the existence of mankind are small Palaeolithic sculptures of women, such as the Venus of Laussel (fig. 6). As a symbol of fertility, the subject of Venus favoured stylised interpretations. However, we know almost nothing about the conditions of creation and use of these sculptures. Similar figures were found at a later date in the Minoan civilisation. The Minoans practised a religion that is also evidenced in statues, such as that of the serpent goddess (fig. 9). Though the proportions are more naturalistic, her feminine attributes are nonetheless underlined. However, its function and true identity, as a goddess or priestess, are still uncertain.
Greek civilisation laid the essential foundations of the modern world. The ancient Greeks developed a cult of the body, especially the male body, and admiration for its athletic prowess is reflected in many idealistic depictions of young male nudes. During the Archaic period, the Kouroi (fig. 16, 18) decorated the graves of young warriors. The Doryphoros (fig. 36), from the hands of Polyclitus, shows the evolution of these figures into a purely aesthetic expression, based on a set of ideal proportions rather than on those of a live model. Decorated ceramics were the principal painted art form of this period, and provide an inexhaustible source of information and numerous erotic subjects. The Greeks practised a form of institutionalised homosexuality in which a grown man became “mentor” of a young boy. However, this patriarchal society had little room for the sexual expression of women; widows were often sequestered and girls were sheltered. In erotic scenes, women were usually either prostitutes or deities. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was given the most erotic treatment, as in the statue produced in the 4th century BCE by Praxiteles (fig. 47). The beauty of the figure was such that it became a tourist attraction in Attica and, according to Pliny, a man tried to make love to it.
The Hellenistic phase of Greek art was characterised by drama and emotion. The Barberini Faun (fig. 61) is a representation of a sensual spirit. Part goat, the figure expresses animal sexuality and allegiance to Dionysus, which is reflected in its apparent intoxication. The Venus de Milo (fig. 70) is the most famous and graceful of all depictions of Aphrodite. In Italy, the Etruscan civilisation adapted many Greek ideas, but accorded higher social status to women. Etruscan sarcophagi often displayed couples (fig. 21), and sometime painted decorations which depicted sexual activity. The Romans also followed and imitated Greek culture. Mansions rediscovered in the 18th century in the buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum reveal the rich sexual, and often humorous culture of the Romans. Brothels used erotic scenes to advertise or decorate their interiors. Gay themes were also not uncommon, such as the Warren Cup (The British Museum, London) which shows two male couples engaged in an erotic game, while sculptures glorifying Antinous, the young lover of Emperor Hadrian, abounded under the Empire (fig. 98). Although belonging to a greater tradition of realism, the treatment of the body in Roman art owed much to Greek heritage, and for centuries to come both Greek and Roman models represented an ideal for art and culture.
2. Anonymous, Rhombic Body of a Woman, c. 26,000–18,000 BCE.
Palaeolithic. Green steatite. Private collection.
3. Anonymous, The Venus of Lespugue, c. 26,000–24,000 BCE.
Palaeolithic. Curtains Cave, Lespugue (France). Mammoth ivory, 14.7 × 6 × 3.6 cm. Musée de l’Homme, Paris.
4. Anonymous, Venus Monpazier, c. 23,000–20,000 BCE.
Palaeolithic. Height: 5.5 cm. National Archaeological Museum, Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
5. Anonymous, The Venus of Willendorf, c. 30,000–25,000 BCE
Paleolithic. Limestone with red polychromy, height: 11.1 cm. Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Discovered in 1908 in the town of Krems, Lower Austria, the Venus of Willendorf is a limestone statuette dating to the Gravettian era. It represents a nude standing woman with steatopygous forms. The head and face, finely engraved, are completely covered and hidden by what appears to be coiled braids. Traces of pigment suggest that the original sculpture was painted in red. In fact, this statuette is the most famous example and one of the oldest sculptures of the Palaeolithic prehistory named by modern pre-historians “Venus”. Indeed, the corpulence of her body (breasts, buttocks, abdomen and thighs) can easily be equated to the symbols of fertility, the original feature of femininity, of which Venus has, since antiquity, been the pure incarnation. However, the interpretation of these works remain enigmatic and cannot really be verified. Some say statuettes of Venus were part of a religious cult, for others they were the “guardians of the home” or, more simply, the expression of an “ideal of Palaeolithic beauty”.
6. Anonymous, Venus of Laussel, c. 20,000–18,000 BCE
Paleolithic. Limestone, 54 × 36 × 15.5 cm. Musée d’Aquitaine, Bordeaux.
7. Anonymous, Mating, c. 5,000–3,000 BCE.
Neolithic. Aouanrehet (Algeria). In situ.
8. Anonymous, Reclining Female Figure, c. 2,400–2,300 BCE.
Paleolithic. Naxos (?) (Greece). White marble, 36.8 × 11.3 × 3.2 cm. The Menil Collection, Houston.
9. Anonymous, Statuette of a Snake Goddess, c. 1,600–1,500 BCE.
Gold and ivory, height: 16.1 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
10. Anonymous, Statuette of Nefertiti (side view and front view), c. 1,570–1,320 BCE.
Ancient Egyptian (18th dynasty). Tell el-Amarna (Egypt). Limestone, height: 40 cm. Ägyptisches Museum, Berlin.
11. Anonymous, Woman’s Body (perhaps Nefertiti), c. 1,345–1,337 BCE.
Ancient Egyptian (18th dynasty, reign of Amenhotep IV, or Akhenaten). Silicified sandstone, height: 29 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
12. Anonymous,
