When I came to writing this article, I spent a long time trying to decide where to begin! Not because of the wealth of Erotic Art that has come from Europe over the millennia. In fact, for the greater part of Europe's history there is an enormous desert of time where sexuality in art is practically absent, especially compared to the rest of the world.

The reason why it is so hard to decide where to begin the history of European Erotic Art is because many of the pieces we look at today as being "erotic" weren't intended as such. Today the western world generally associates nudity, or even partial nudity, or even the suggestion of nudity, with sex though that hasn't always been the case. During some periods in European history nudity was considered an everyday occurrence and in others the nude in art was used symbolically. I suppose the controversy lies within the intent of the artist.

We might as well start from the beginning.

The Venus of Willendorf

The Venus of Willendorf is perhaps one of the oldest goddess figures ever found. She is estimated to be over 20,000 years old and was found during the early 20th Century in Lower Austria. She is obviously completely nude, though by today's common sexual tastes, few would regard the figure as sexually stimulating. However, her sexual features are very pronounced and perhaps exaggerated and for this reason she is widely accepted as being a symbol of fertility.

It may be condescending to assume food was in short supply for this primitive society of hunters and gatherers, though it is important to note that she was carved during a time when there wasn't a McPizzaKing on every street corner. Food may not have been scarce but life would have been hard and it would be rare to find a woman in such wonderful health. Looking back, it is possible that this was seen as a very attractive figure and possibly erotic. Then again, it may just be a religious idol.

Carvings such as this have been found across most of Europe. In my opinion she is a classic example of erotic art from the time before the Greeks and Romans.

Greek and Roman Erotic Art

I was watching a documentary on the nude not long ago. It was a four part series starting with classical nudes (the Greeks and Romans) and moving chronologically to "Modern" art.

To the right is an example of the kind of nudes they were talking about from ancient Greece.

"They created these statements of their racial and cultural superiority. Tucidides talks of nudity as a mark of progress that distinguishes the modern from the old fashioned; the Greek, and the non-Greek. This is crucially important. For us, nudity is often only accepted in art but dicouraged in society at large. In Greece, male nudity was acceptable at the gym, at athletic meetings and at the baths and so on and therfore its portrayal is a reflection of the society rather than eroticism."

So what the presenter is saying is that the nude is often seen in classical Greek art because it was a part of society and as acceptable as say, wearing a hat in public today.

Although that may be true, he completely avoided the fact that a very large part of the art produced in ancient Greece was undoubtedly erotic!

Now this is what I would call a classic Greek nude!

You may be surprised to hear that this form of the nude was just as common as the "athletic" nudes mentioned earlier. Although, more often than not homosexual scenes were portrayed, rather than the heterosexual one above.

Homosexuality in ancient Greece didn't have the same stigma that it does today. At least, not as long as you were the "giver" and not the "receiver." It was about class. The "giver" (known as the "erastes") was considered to be in the dominant role while the "receiver" (known as the "eromenos") had the submissive role. These roles extended past simple intercourse and into the fabric of everyday life. Older men, who were the dominant ones in Greek society, would often take on young male partners as their eromenos thus confirming their dominant status. Once the young lover had grown up, he would then take on an eromenos for himself. I wouldn't say this was standard practice in ancient Greece, though it was common and known as Pederasty

Together, the two would form a mentor-pupil relationship. This could have practical benefits, as the erastes could educate the eromenos in politics and civic life, and use his connections to ensure the eromenos would find success when he got older.

There is a well known (and very amusing!) piece of erotic art from ancient Greece known as the Eurymedon Vase that shows the "dominant" and "submissive" roles. On one side is depicted a mighty Greek warrior standing proud and clutching his erect penis. On the other side of the vase is an effeminate Persian archer, looking rather camp and bent over presenting his posterior. I should probably mention that the Greeks and Persians were at war during this time (around 400BC). Anyway, here are the two sides of the vase.

Between the two characters is the inscription:

"I am Eurymedon.
I am bent over."

The meaning of the inscription is unclear since the Eurymedon is the river where the Athenians defeated the Persians in battle around 460BC. It is possible the Greek is referring to himself as Eurymedon and the Persian is declaring that he is bent over but that isn't clear. What is clear though is that the Greek warrior is obviously portrayed as being dominant over the Persian who is shown in a submissive role.

Roman Erotic Art

Ancient Pompeii would have been an erotic art enthusiast's dream come true! An entire city COVERED from head to toe in erotic art!

Pompeii is a ruined city in the south of Italy which is most famous for being buried over night by the unexpected eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD. Relatively little damage was done to the city though nearly every resident was killed by the hot ash and poisonous fumes coming from Vesuvius. The entire city was buried under a thick layer of ash and was lost for over 1,700 years.

In 1738, the nearby town of Herculaneum was discovered accidentally by a team led by the Spanish army captain Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre while excavation work was being done for a new palace for Charles of Bourbon, the king of Naples. Upon finding many ancient roman artifacts on the site, the group then began excavation on a site nearby they believed to be the location of another town called Stabiea due to artifacts discovered in 1599 while a new course was being dug for the river Sarno. This site was later identified as being Pompeii.

As the excavation work continued, they found many roman artifacts from buildings to pottery. Though many of these artifacts they found to be disturbing. Across many of the walls of the city were frescoes and mosaics of extremely erotic scenes from couples in intercourse to Gods with enormous genitalia. Even many of the everyday house hold objects had erotic themes. During the early days of the excavation, many of the images were reburied to keep them hidden, and many were destroyed or plastered over. As work continued, they would have realized they would have to destroy the entire city to hide its eroticism.

As the project continued, many artifacts were taken back to Naples to be displayed at the National Archaeological Museum. By 1819, the collection was considered too obscene to be viewed by any other than those of the highest morals and maturity so it was locked away in what is know as "The Secret Chamber." The exhibit has periodically reopened over the centuries, though for the most part it has been locked away from public view.

It wasn't until the year 2000 when the Naples National Archaeological Museum finally reopened the exhibit to the public.

The site of Pompeii is also open to the public, and though many of the more precious pieces of erotic art have been removed, there are still hints across the city of its sexual past.