Abstract
The study of ancient visual representations of sexual activity reveals the modernity of the term ‘pornography’. Not only is pornography a modern word, its genesis lies in modern collecting practices that so isolated ancient erotic objects from their contexts as to render them meaningless. Beginning with the Renaissance, wealthy collectors assembled collections of Greek and Roman sculptures, vase paintings, mosaics, ceramics, small bronzes and gems with sexual representations, calling them ‘erotica’. The discovery of Herculaneum (1738) and Pompeii (1748) brought about an explosive proliferation of such objects. Antiquarians studied and collected them, attempting to explain them on the basis of ancient texts (e.g. Barré 1839–40) or by comparison with contemporary phallic cults (Knight 1786).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Barré, L. (1839–40) Herculanum et Pompéi: recueil général des peintures, bronzes, mosaïques, etc. découverts jusqu’à ce jour, et reproduits d’après Le antichità di Ercolano, Il Museo borbonico, et tous les ouvrages analogues: augmenté de sujets inédits, gravés au trait sur cuivre par H. Roux aîné et accompagné d’un texte explicatif par m. L. Barré, vol. 8, Le musée secret. Paris: Firmin Didot Frères.
Clarke, J.R. (1998) Looking at Lovemaking: Constructions of Sexuality in Roman art, 100 BC-AD 250. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Clarke, J.R. (2003) Roman Sex: 100 BC to AD 250, with New Photography by Michael Larvey. New York: Harry N. Abrams.
De Caro, S. (2000) Il gabinetto segreto del Museo Nazionale Archeologico di Napoli. Naples: Electa.
Dover, K.J. (1978) Greek Homosexuality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Famin, César, (1836) Musée royal de Naples: peinstures, bronzes et statues érotiques du cabinet secret, avec leur explication. Paris: Abel Ledoux.
Hallett, J.P. and M.B. Skinner (eds) (1997) Roman Sexualities. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Halperin, D.M. (1990) One Hundred Years of Homosexuality. New York: Routledge.
Halperin, D.M., J.J. Winkler and F.I. Zeitlin (eds) (1990) Before Sexuality: The Construction of Erotic Experience in the Ancient Greek World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Hubbard, T.K. (ed.) (2003) Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook of Basic Documents. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Jacobelli, L. (1995) Le pitture erotiche delle Terme Suburbane di Pompei. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider.
Johns, C. (1982) Sex or Symbol? Erotic Images of Greece and Rome. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Kendrick, W. (1987) The Secret Museum: Pornography in Modern Culture. New York: Viking.
Knight, R. P. (1786) Account of the Remains of the Worship of Priapus. London: The Society of Dilettanti.
Müller, C.O. (1852) Ancient Art and Its Remains: Or, a Manual of the Archaeology of Art, trans. John Leitch. London: H. Bohn.
Parker, H. (1997) ‘The Teratogenic Grid’, in Hallett and Skinner (eds) op. cit.: 47–66.
Richlin, A. (1981) ‘The Meaning of irrumare in Cactullus and Martial’, Classical Philology 76: 40–6.
Richlin, A. (1983) The Garden of Priapus: Sexuality and Aggression in Roman Humor. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Williams, C.A. (2010) Roman Homosexuality. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2013 John R. Clarke
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Clarke, J.R. (2013). Before Pornography: Sexual Representation in Ancient Roman Visual Culture. In: Maes, H. (eds) Pornographic Art and the Aesthetics of Pornography. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137367938_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137367938_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-34982-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-36793-8
eBook Packages: Palgrave Religion & Philosophy CollectionPhilosophy and Religion (R0)