December 2017
Intermediate to advanced
208 pages
3h 39m
English
An image can be sexually interesting in its own right.
• In post–Roman Western art, there is a history of unease with erotic imagery, attributable to the way in which Christianity sought to control and contain sexual behavior.
• During the Renaissance, sexually explicit images were generally displayed in private. Eroticism was acceptable in publicly displayed imagery relating to the classical past.
• Limiting erotic imagery to classical subjects continued until the nineteenth century and then dissolved. In Paris in 1863, Édouard Manet (1832–1883) painted Le dejéuner sur i’herbe, deliberately removing a classical nude from its “safe” setting by surrounding her with men in modern dress. Later, in Vienna, Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) ...