Bogdan Pomoria

From senzuality to perversity

- from Venus of Willendorf to Courbet and again back to origins -

From sensuality to perversity

- from Venus of Willendorf to Courbet and again to the origins -

The feminine eternity, the eternal fascination. The woman and her body constituted a
strong interest over time, the art bringing its homage countless times. Either if were looking at
the statue of Venus of Willendorf or at Mademoiselle dAvignon, the woman and its shapes makes
up the central subject.
Womans fertility was always a mystery. Due to this fact there is such a large interest
shown towards the woman. For the Palaeolithic man the helplessness of explaining the
procreation raised an entire fertility cult. We can say about them that they offered a great
importance to the perpetuation of the specie (either their own or those of the various plants and
animals that made up their diet of hunter-gatherers) because of the anxiety towards the hostile
environment in which they struggled for survival, fertility being thus valued. Those matriarchal
societies worshiped a feminine deity because the woman is the one that gives birth. By enlarging
the frame we can say that that deity was the nature itself, Mama Geea.
As a representation of womans fertility, maybe the best known one stays as a testimony
Venus of Willendorf, a statuette that belongs to a Palaeolithic typology largely spread. We can tell
this by the morphological characteristics of the statue. Every attribute that is related to the
fertility, the breasts, pelvis and buttocks are exacerbated while the physiognomy is inexistent,
giving up this way to a certain identity, being thus a matter of representing the feminine gender
in general. Overall the statuette represents the ideal of feminine beauty. In a period in which the
food resources were scarce a fat woman was well regarded. Moreover developed hips indicate
the reproductive capacity of a woman and developed breasts shows that most certainly they will
assure an optimal lactation. After all, mens attraction foe breasts comes from biological reasons,
perpetuating the specie.
Another representation that belongs to the same typology of venusoids is Venus of Hohle
Fels. Discovered recently, in 2009, this statuette is 35.000 years old, preceding the Willendorf
one with 15.000 years. It is not only the oldest statuette of a deity but also the oldest figurative
depiction discovered until now. Some erotic representation dating from this period are the
petrogliphs of vulvas as those carved on the walls of Creswell Crags cave in England or Adonis

Bogdan Pomoria

From senzuality to perversity

- from Venus of Willendorf to Courbet and again back to origins -

von Zschernitz, a 7.000 years old fragment of a statuette depicting a man with his genital organs
exposed.
If some representations of the male gender appear during this period they appear only as
hunting episodes in order to emphasize the virility implied by this act. An example of this kind is
the Palaeolithic Bowman. The passing from the matriarchal society towards the patriarchal one
was made up due to the settling down. It entailed after it the conscious of land property,
generating this way conflicts on scales never seen before. In those conflicts the warrior heroes
and the leaders of armies made themselves remarked, fact that gave birth to a patriarchal society.
In Antiquity sexuality was something common. In ancient Greece sexuality was an
extremely important social agent. Homosexuality was treated as an accepted phenomenon and
even as one within the societys boundaries. It was a common practice for the young lads to be
initiated in the sexual life by grown-ups of the same sex, a kind of sexual mentors. Nudity was
often seen in sports competitions, baths, gymnasiums, its artistic representations being rather a
reflection of society than an erotic hypostasis 1. The allowing of nudity in ancient Greece was
due to a cult of body aspect proper to the Greek philosophy men sana in corpore sana. It was
thought that you can have a virtuous spirit only if you have a perfect body. This way the athletic
competitions came to be, competitions which were nothing else but an opportunity for the
athletes to show up their bodies. This way the masculine representations always appear nude.
Although, as we already seen, homosexuality was accepted at a social level, it seems that the art
avoided representing such practices.
The masculine nude was often represented, especially in sculpture, to praise its
perfection. Either if were talking about the static archaic Kouruses or about the classical
Discobol with its dynamic posture, the man has always presented interest for idealizing and
emphasising the geometry2 of his body.
The status of woman in Greece was an almost inexistent one, her being treated as an
object, as a divine right of man. The woman didnt had the right to be educated, to walk by
herself on the street but only accompanied by a slave or by another person, didnt had the right to
let any surface of her body been seen 3, the sole purpose of woman being the procreation and
raising up children.

http://www.eroti-cart.com/erotic-art-history-page-25
We say geometry because its really about this, a geometry of ideal proportions.
3
This fact is seen also in the art level, the artistic image beeing, as weve seen above, a depiction of social realities.
In the examples of painting from the ancient Greek teritory, namely the painted vessels, the woman always appears
as being clothed. Prostituates were the only women that were depicted naked.
2

Bogdan Pomoria

From senzuality to perversity

- from Venus of Willendorf to Courbet and again back to origins -

If the real world was one as free as it can get than the same happened with the
mythological reality, the Greek gods being equally humanely, reflecting entirely the human
reality. The most sexually active god was without any doubt Zeus himself. Besides the fact that
he was the one that inexplicably gave birth by himself to other gods also had numerous
adulterous impulses, both with gods and with mortals. Either if he raped Leda, disguised in a
swan, or Danae under the shape of a golden rain, Alcmene by showing himself as her own
husband or Europe, kidnapping her, Zeus is depicted as a powerful god driven by sexual
impulses. He even raped a man, Ganymede, homosexuality manifesting itself even on divine
level.
Greek goddesses were also characterized by a profound eroticism. Hera was the goddess
of matrimony. Aphrodite, goddess of beauty and love, was probably the best characterized by
sensuality. She came into being from the foam of the sea resulted from castration of Zeus, which
suggests us one more time her erotic valence. Married with Hephaestus, the god of fire and
crafts, she proves herself to inherit from her father the typical looseness. She had numerous other
affairs with many other partners among which Ares, god of war, Dionysus, god of wine, Hermes,
god of trade and roads, messenger of gods and protector of robbers or Poseidon, god of sea.
Among the mortals she had Adonis and Anchises as partners, the last one being the father of
Aenea, the ancestor of Romans. One of the most important episodes in the classical mythology
also bounds itself to our problematic, sexuality. Pariss judgement tooked place in order to solve
a conflict and to decide which of the goddesses Aphrodite, Athena or Hera was the most
beautiful. They, trying to bribe him, successively offered him wisdom and power but at the end
Paris also gave up to a sexual impulse, choosing in favour of Aphrodite, goddess of beauty who
offered him the most beautiful mortal, Helen.
In the Roman territory Antiquity founded probably the most prolific ground for erotic
depictions. Pompeii, the city from Mount Vesuvius foot, buried under its ash in 79 AD is literally
covered in this kind of depictions. Again the representations served, as to Greeks, to social
realities. Near brothels they had the function of advertising the offered services. In private houses
amulets and other representations had the purpose of assuring fertility, having thus a very
concrete and pragmatic role.
Alongside Christianitys birth and spreading in the Roman Empire, the European culture
and civilization suffers dramatic shifts. If until 313 AD Christianity was forbidden, any Christian
being executed, together with Emperor Constantine Christianity becomes legal so that
afterwards, in 391 to become the official religion of Roman. Due to this fact the erotic
representations almost entirely disappear in the Middle Ages when the biggest art customer was
4

Bogdan Pomoria

From senzuality to perversity

- from Venus of Willendorf to Courbet and again back to origins -

the church. The only such depictions that managed to slip past the churchs censorship were the
ones showing Adam and Eve in Paradise and those doomed in the fires of hell. The ideal body
of the classical culture is completely lost, becoming a symbol of shame and sin, of weakness and
helplessness.4
Christian censorship that targeted erotic representations turned out to not make its
presence so drastically felt starting with the Renaissance. Because of the humanism, human body
was the main subject of art, the nude representation becoming something usual. Also because of
the interest shown to classical mythology, the scenes with gods in different intimate hypostasis
increased in number. Probably then the concept of pornography emerged.
Botticelli firstly introduced in painting a subject outside Christian area. His work Birth of
Venus depicts a young and sensual goddess totally naked, the first nude that follows the Middle
Ages. We can tell from the painting the fact that the nude in that period of the beginning of
Renaissance was still a sensible subject. Here we find a nymph that approaches the goddess with
a shroud to cover her shameful nakedness, having thus a representation of a naked person not a
nude5. Through the chosen mythological subject and also because the purchaser was Lorenzo di
Medici and not the church the avoidance of censorship was possible.
Donatello was the artist that introduced the nude in sculpture with his work David. It is an
idealization of masculine body, the biblical hero being depicted in the classical posture and
geometry of contraposition.
Titian pushed even further the boundary of erotic representations with his work entitled
Venus of Urbino. Here he realises the nude of a woman. 6 In the background of the painting we
can spot two house maidens dressed according to that times fashion. The scene takes place in a
typical interior for that time. Again also because of the purchaser, this time the Duke of Urbino,
the work was able to be realised in this manner.7 Another one of his works charged with
eroticism both in its name and its subject and composition is Bacchanalia. Here he chooses to
represent a scene from an ancient orgiastic feast. The figures represented in an indolent nudity,
illustrates the pleasure of senses, exacerbated by wine and physical love, in an extremely direct

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nude_(art)
Kenneth Clark in his book Nude: a study of ideal shape crosses the distinction between a naked person stripped by
clothes seized by shame and embarrassment and a person represented nude
6
From Titians corespondences with Duke of Urbino we cannot tell if its really Venus that we are talking about
7
Shortly after the finnishing of the painting the cardinal Farnese seeing the work ordered Titian a similar one for his
private collection, asking for his discretion so that no one will know that a representant of the church ordered such a
piece
5

Bogdan Pomoria

From senzuality to perversity

- from Venus of Willendorf to Courbet and again back to origins -

manner8. But maybe the most Titians most representative work for our subject is The sacred
amour and the profane amour.
Correggio was the one that brought the intimate scenes back on the art scene. He realised
a series of works that depicts Zeus in his various sexual hypostasis with the countless characters
about which we already mentioned. Those scenes are as explicit as it can be, the extazy of the
characters being obvious.
Giorgione with his work The Storm stands up as if heralding the perversity that emerged a
few centuries after at Fragonard. Here he represents two main characters, a soldier and a woman
which is exposed in front of the soldier while breast feeding her baby. Over this work we can
build various sceneries9.
Michelangelo was the one that painted a work, now lost, that portrayed Leda in the
middle of an intercourse with Zeus disguised as a swan. This work is preserved today only as a
copy made by Correggio. By picturing Leda from a complex frontal angle, the moment of
joining of the two characters is displayed in an extremely suggestive manner but without giving
the feeling of obscenity 10. The late period of Renaissance, closer to Mannerism, was the one in
which the study after a model developed, the representations going further and further away from
the classic idealisation of the body. It is considered that Raphael was the first one that did this,
even though it seems that the same Michelangelo did such a study before him. He also is the one
that paints The Last Judgment on the wall of the altar of The Sistine Chapel. Here he realises
numerous male nudes11 and places them near Jesus. The master chooses though to hide their
genital areas.
The mannerist Agnolo Bronzino executed a work that almost crossed the limits of
common sense. His painting The Descent of Jesus into the Limbo portrays Jesus near some
numerous male and female nudes. It started a scandal because many of the characters pictured
there were recognized as being real persons, the work being considered an insult towards the
name of God. The Allegory of the victory of love is another one of the artists panel that portrays
Venus kissing with Cupid as in a kind of prelude before an intercourse. Agnolo Bronzino
pictures in this painting an elaborated allegory of loves joys and pleasures.12

Manfred Wundram, Renaterea, Kln, edit. Taschen, 2008, pag. 66

Or situations, as we will immediately see what the perversity of a situation means.
10
Ibidem, pag. 76 (reffering to Correggios copy)
11
In the work about which we are talking are pictured only male nudes, the mentioned Greek idealisation being here
strongly noticed
12
Ibidem, pag. 82
9

Bogdan Pomoria

From senzuality to perversity

- from Venus of Willendorf to Courbet and again back to origins -

The school of Fontainebleau brings us into attention an entirely voyeuristic work. The
portrait of Gabriell dEstres and one of her sisters surprises the two women in an intimate
hypostasis while bathing. The first one catches the nipple of the second one right in the moment
portrayed by the painter. The boldness of this work announced the future attitude towards
sexuality.
The northern Renaissance wasnt influenced in such a way by the classical mythology,
nevertheless though due to numerous travels of northern artists in Italy it also acquired the
characteristic idealization of the human body. If Agnolo Bronzino dared to portray Jesus amongst
the nudes of real characters, bringing this way the divine level closer to the terrestrial one, the
same thing was done before by another painter, Hieronymus Bosch. The Garden of Delights is a
triptych strongly marked by eroticism. If in the two side panels the artist represents the creation
of human and the hell, the central panel is the one that adopts the mentioned eroticism. Although
it doesnt send us straight towards a Christian image, it represents the artists vision of paradise.
It comprises numerous characters and sex scenes. From this triptych we find out the attitude of
the church towards nudity and sexuality in general that grew looser and looser.
Once the printing press was invented and the engravings spread, the erotic scenes already
started to call up for perversity in order to draw up more readers. Marcantonio Raimondi, with
his work I Modi, paved the road towards a genuine market for materials which had the only
purpose of sexually arouse the reader. Thus we can say that he gave birth to pornography. The
named work consists of sixteen engravings, copies after the works of Giulio Romano, Raphaels
apprentice, that displays couples having sex in various postures. The work is considered to be
pornographic because it has no artistic value. Its main purpose is to sexually arouse the reader,
without having any other meaning besides the explicit one. When it came out from the printing
press in 1524 it caused huge controversies, Raimondi even being arrested. It soon became
popular all over Europe, being a kind of a porn magazine of the 16th century.
The Baroque totally gives up the human body idealisation, calling up the study after a
model due to a more realistic creation programme disposed by the Trent Synod meant to draw
back believers towards Catholicism. Due to this fact the mythological themes decreases from
intensity. The number of erotic images also diminishes in the context of the churchs reimposing
as an art customer.
Rubens was the one that best pictures the erotic art in this period. He portrays nudes that
are corpulent, carnal, full of vitality, fertility and virility. The Three Graces arent different at all
from Venus of Willendorf. They stand up for the sexual ideal of a woman. The rubenesque tries
7

Bogdan Pomoria

From senzuality to perversity

- from Venus of Willendorf to Courbet and again back to origins -

to emphasise exactly this. The beauty proposed by Rubens () is sensually loose. () it

expresses a Beauty without hidden significations, happy to exist and make itself seen13.
Together with the Rococo the art becomes an entirely perverse one, the suggestion of
erotic situations being frequently used. According to this perversity relies exactly in the
malicious suggestion of eroticism. The nude becomes playful. As hard to believe is the fact that a
strong example of such kind of art is Fragonards work, The Swing. Although the female
character is fully clothed and from our angle nothing gives a hint about the eroticism of the
painting the context in which the second character is placed gives us a clue about its eroticism.
The second character, a respectable man from the high society like the lady in the swing, has a
clear view of the womans underwear. In this painting we have to deal with the above mentioned
perversity that comes out from a specific situation.
Francois Boucher paints the portrait of the courtesan Marie-Louise O'Murphy. The
character portrayed in this painting doesnt send us explicitly towards an erotic scene. The
perversity of this work stays in the posture in which she is represented. She stays with her legs
wide open, like immediately after a love affair with the king.
The idealisation of the human body comes again on the art stage together with the
Neoclasicism. The interest shown once more for the ancient classic civilization grew bigger and
bigger also because the discovery of the cities from the foot of Mount Vesuvius, Pompeii and
Herculaneum about which we already talked. When meeting the erotic art from these cities the
neo-classicists considered themselves as being its successors.
The Romantic vision about the man was a serene one. It was considered that the man is
good from birth but becomes corrupted by the environment and society. Briefly, the Romantic
Beauty expresses a spirit state14. This philosophy reflected also in the field of art. In this period
pornography begins to bounds increasingly with the political subjects that were actual then about
which we will not talk in this work. We would like to remind though that pornography in those
times had the role of putting down social classes and norms, exactly as, if an extrapolation is
allowed, the orgiastic rituals such as the bacchanals from Antiquity.
Starting with Courbets Origin of the World, Realism makes its voice louder than before
in the field of erotic depictions. Realists were reproached the fact that because they painted what
they see in front of them their art was a vulgar one. Gustave Courbet for example presented
himself (...) right from the beginning as the biggest opposer of idealism. () His passionate
13
14

Umberto Eco, Istoria frumuseii, Bucharest, edit. Enciclopedia RAO, 2005, pag. 209
Ibidem, pag. 299
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Bogdan Pomoria

From senzuality to perversity

- from Venus of Willendorf to Courbet and again back to origins -

concern was to reproduce as accurate as possible the modern reality without deforming it with
the Classic and Romantic manner.1516 We can put side by side Rubens with his corpulent nudes
that doesnt fits at all in the ideal standard of gentleness and grace of feminine beauty and
Courbet which depicts the woman as realistic as possible, with all her defects and imperfections.
When it comes to the representation Impressionism resembles Realism, being different
only on technique level although unlike Realists that looked for accurately and objectively
represent a scene, Impressionists were looking for illustrate their own impressions about a scene
in their own subjective manner17
Manet, although isnt entirely considered to be an Impressionist, was the one that stirred
the pound, if that was still possible, with his painting Dejeuner sur lHerbe. What was
considered to be outrageous about the work was the fact that the women were illustrated nude in
a trivial context, accompanied by two clothed respectable men. What shocked about this painting
was perhaps the humiliation at which the women were supposed.
After Impressionism the erotic artworks begin to increasingly emphasize the womans
condition of an object of desire and not of a human being capable of feelings. The woman is
supposed to more and more degrading situations, becoming a commodity in a porn industry. She
becomes thus thorned apart by the chronicle desire to reach the perfect plastic proportions.
Todays Venus of Willendorf would have the same characteristics exacerbated to fit in the ideal
90-60-90.

15

Ardengo Soffici, Meditaii artistice, Bucharest, edit. Meridiane, 1981, pp. 127-131
Courbet was the one that coined the term Realism by saying that painting is the representation of the visible
shape. The essence of Realism is the denial of the ideal.
17
http://www.eroti-cart.com/1800s-erotic-art-c-50?sort=2a
16

Bogdan Pomoria

From senzuality to perversity

- from Venus of Willendorf to Courbet and again back to origins -

Bibliography

BALACI, Anca, Mic dicionar mitologic greco-roman, Bucharest, edit. tiinific, 1969
ECO, Umberto, Istoria frumuseii, Bucharest, edit. Enciclopedia RAO, 2005
FOUCAULT, Michel, The History of Sexuality, New York, edit. Pantheon, 1978
SOFFICI, Ardengo, Meditaii artistice, Bucharest, edit. Meridiane, 1981 (chapter Gustave
Courbet)
WUNDRAM, Manfred, Renaterea, Kln, edit Taschen, 2008
http://www.bigeye.com/sexeducation
http://www.eroti-cart.com/erotic-art-history-page-25
http://www.libidomag.com/nakedbrunch/archive/europorn01.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_erotic_depictions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_human_sexuality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nude_(art)

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