Universal Principles of Art

31 EROTIC ART

THE AESTHETICS AND POLITICS OF DESIRE

An image can be sexually interesting in its own right, and erotic artworks appear in more or less all cultures, both ancient and modern. Excavations at Pompeii, for instance, have unearthed troves of sexually explicit frescos.

In post–Roman Western art there is a history of unease with erotic imagery, attributable perhaps to the way in which Christian religious practice sought to control and contain sexual behavior. Erotic works appear in medieval art only in discreet places, hidden under choir seats or relegated to obscure corners of illuminated manuscripts. In the Renaissance, artists made sexually explicit images, but they were generally displayed only in private. Eroticism was acceptable ...