Читать книгу 30 Millennia of Erotic Art - Victoria Charles - Страница 2

The term “Erotic Art” is muddied by a miasma of ambiguous terms. Art and pornography, sexuality and sensuality, obscenity and morality, are all involved to such an extent that it seems almost impossible to reach an objective definition, which is not unusual in the history of art. How does one define erotic art?

This much is certain: the depiction of a sexual act alone is not enough to qualify it as erotic art. To identify erotic art just by its content would reduce it to one dimension, just as it is impossible to distinguish art from pornography simply by describing what it depicts. The view that erotic works are created solely for sexual arousal, and so cannot be art, is also erroneous. Does the creative imagination brought to erotic art distinguish it from pornography? Yet pornography is also a product of the imagination – it has to be more than just a depiction of sexual behaviour, or who would buy it? Günter Schmidt states that pornography is “constructed like sexual fantasy and daydreams, just as unreal, megalomaniacal, magical, illogical, and just as stereotypical.” Erotic daydreams are also the subject of erotic art. Those making a choice between art and pornography may have already decided against the former. Pornography is a moralising, defamatory term. What art is to one person is the Devil’s handiwork to another. The mixing of aesthetic with ethical-moralistic questions dooms every clarification process from the start.

In the original Greek, pornography means “prostitute writings” – that is, text with sexual content – in which case it would be possible to approach pornography in a free-thinking manner and equate the content of erotic art with that of pornography. A re-evaluation of this term would amount to its rehabilitation.

The extent to which the distinction between art and pornography depends on contemporary attitudes is illustrated, for example, by the painting-over of Michelangelo’s Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel. Nudity was not considered obscene during the Renaissance. The patron of the work, Pope Clement VII, saw nothing immoral in its execution. His successor, Paul IV, however, ordered an artist to provide the figures in the Last Judgment with pants!

Another example of the difficult relationship between society and erotic art is the handling of the excavated frescos of Pompeii, which, until recently, were inaccessible to the public. In 1819, the Gallery of Obscenities was established in the Palazzo degli Studi, a locked room in the future National Museum, to which only people of mature age and high moral standards had access. The collection changed its name to the Gallery of Locked Objects in 1823. Again, only those with a royal permit were able to view the exhibited works. The reactionary wave that followed the unrest of the “Italian” Revolution in 1848 also affected the erotic collection of the museum. In 1849 the doors of the Gallery of Locked Objects were closed forever; three years later the collection was transferred to an even further removed section of the museum in which the doors leading to the area were bricked up.

It was not until 1860, when Guiseppe Garibaldi marched into Naples, that the reopening of the erotic collection was even considered; its name was changed to the Pornographic Collection. Over time, many objects amongst it were removed and returned to the normal exhibition rooms. The history of the gallery thus provides an overview of the morals of the last three centuries. Not every age is equally propitious for the creation of erotic art and its associated aspects. It can even become its confessed enemy. The libertine environment of the Rococo period, on the other hand, created a very favourable atmosphere for eroticism and erotic art. However, erotic art is not only a reflection of sexual freedom; it can also be a by-product of the suppression and repression with which eroticism is burdened. It is even conceivable that the most passionate erotic works were created not in spite of, but rather because of the cultural pressures placed on sexuality. In nature, the instinct-controlled sexuality of animals is not based on eroticism, but the culture of eroticism uses and depends on nature. Whereas sexuality as an imperative of nature – even in humans – is timeless, eroticism is changeable: as a form of sexuality that is culturally conditioned, it has a history.

Eroticism thus has to be understood as a socially and culturally driven phenomenon. In this case, it is the subject of moral, legal, and magical prohibitions, which are put in place to prevent sexuality from harming the social structure. The bridled urge expresses itself, but it also encourages fantasy without exposing society to the destructive dangers of excess. This distance distinguishes eroticism from sexuality. Eroticism is a successful balancing act that finds a precarious equilibrium between the cold flow of a rationally organised society – which in its extremes can also lead to the collapse of a community – and the warm flow of a licentious and possibly destructive sexuality.

Yet, even in its tamed form, eroticism remains a demonic power in human consciousness, echoing the dangerous song of the sirens, in that approaching them is fatal. Devotion and surrender, regression and aggression: these are powers that still tempt us. The convergence of desire and longing for death has always played a big part in literature.

Insofar as eroticism consists of distance and detours, the fetishist constitutes the picture-perfect eroticist. The fetishised object, in its fixed, tense relationship with what is immediate, is more significant to the fetishist than the promise of fulfilled desires represented by the object. The imagined body is more meaningful than any real body.

Collectors are eroticists as well. While the lecher or debauché is active in real life, the collector lives chastely in a realm of fantasy. Moreover, the chaste heart can relish the delights of vice even more deeply and thoroughly than the debauched.

Not only does art allow a distancing of object and viewer, but it affords freedom, the freedom to play with fire without being burned. It appeals to the eye, and allows toying with sin without committing a sinful act. This freedom through distance can be noted when observing the different reactions of viewers when looking at sex magazines and works of art: have you ever seen the viewer of a porn magazine smile? A quiet cheerfulness, however, can frequently be observed in viewers of works of art, as if art is capable of reducing the sensual impact of a piece. However, those who in a derogatory manner pronounce a work of art to be pornographic prove only their lack of artistic appreciation in the object depicted. Turning away in disgust does not necessarily characterise morality. Such people may simply be unsusceptible to erotic culture. Eduard Fuchs, the past master of erotic art, whose books were accused of being pornographic during his lifetime, considered eroticism the fundamental subject of all art: sensuality is said to be present in any art, even if its objective is not always sexual. Hence, it would almost be a tautology to speak of “erotic art”.

Long before Fuchs, Lou Andreas-Salomé had already pointed out the true relationship between eroticism and aesthetics: “It seems to be a sibling growth from the same root that artistic drive and sexual drive yield such extensive analogies that aesthetic delight changes into erotic delight so imperceptibly, erotic desire so instinctively reaches for the aesthetic, the ornamental (possibly giving the animal kingdom its ornament directly as a bodily creation).” In the evening of his life, Picasso was asked about the difference between art and eroticism; his pensive answer was: “But – there is no difference.” Instead, as others remarked about eroticism, Picasso warned about the experience of art: “Art is never chaste; one should keep it away from all innocent ignoramuses. People insufficiently prepared for art should never be allowed close to art. Yes, art is dangerous. If it is chaste, it is not art.”

Viewed with the eyes of a moral watchdog, every type of art and literature would have to be abolished. If spirit and mind are the essence of humanity, then all those placing the mind and spirit in a position opposed to sensuality are hypocrites. On the contrary, sexuality experiences its true human form only after developing into eroticism and art – some translate eroticism as the art of love. Matters excluded from the civilising process assert themselves by demanding a medium that is spiritually determined, and that is art. It is in art that sexuality reaches its fullest bloom, which seems to negate all that is sensual in the shape of erotic art.

Pornography is a judgmental term used by those who remain closed to eroticism, and whose sensuality perhaps never had the opportunity to be cultivated. These culturally underprivileged people – among them possibly so-called art experts and prosecuting attorneys – perceive sexuality as a threat even when it occurs in an aesthetically-tempered format. Even the observation that a work has offended or violated the viewpoints of many does not make it pornographic. Art is dangerous! Works of art can offend and injure the feelings of others, and do not always make viewers happy. After all, is it not the duty of art to provoke a reaction and shake things up? The term pornography is no longer in-keeping with the times. Artistic depictions of sexual activities, whether they annoy or please, are part of erotic art. If not, they are insipid, dumb works.

Eastern societies, in particular, have known how to integrate the sexual and erotic into their art and culture. Chinese religion, for example, which is entirely free of Western notions of sin, considers lust and love as pure. The union of man and woman under the sign of Tao expresses the same harmony as the alternation of day and night, winter and summer. One can say – and rightly so – that the ancient forms of Chinese thought have their origins in sexual conceptions. Yin and yang, two complementary ideas, determine the universe. In this way, the erotic philosophy of the ancient Chinese also encompasses a cosmology. Sexuality is an integrated component of a philosophy of life and cannot be separated from it. One of the oldest and most stimulating civilisations on earth thus assures us through its religion that sex is good, and instructs us, for religious reasons, to carry out the act of love creatively and passionately. This lack of inhibition in sexual matters is mirrored in Chinese art.

Similarly, the great japanese masters created a wealth of erotic pictures, which rank equal with the nation’s other works of art. No measure of state censorship was ever able to completely suppress the production of these images. Shungas (Images of Spring) depict the pleasures and entertainment of an earthly world. It was considered natural to seek out the pleasures of the flesh, whatever form they took. The word “vice” was unspoken in ancient Japan, and sodomy was a sexual pleasure like any other.

In India, eroticism is sanctified in Hindu temples. In Ancient Greece, it culminated in the cult of beauty, joining the pleasures of the body with those of the mind. Greek philosophy understood the world as an interplay between Apollo and Dionysus, between reason and ecstasy.

Only Christianity began to view eroticism in the context of sin and darkness, so creating irreconcilable differences. “The Devil Eros has become more interesting to man than all the angels and all the saints,” maintained Nietzsche, a tenet that would probably find no sympathy in Japan – Eros was never demonised there. In fact, what Nietzsche lamented in the West never occurred in Japan, nor in many other Eastern cultures. “Christianity”, in Nietzschean words, “forced Eros to drink poison”.

In Western Europe, erotic depictions were banished to secret galleries. The floating, transitory world was held in chains, and only with great difficulty was science able to free sexuality from prejudices and the association with sin. It is therefore no wonder that sexology developed wherever the relationship between sexuality and eroticism was especially ambivalent or troubled. Our cornucopia of a colourful, erotic world of images and objects shows that Eros can be an all-encompassing and unifying energy. These items provide an opportunity to steal a glimpse of an essential, human sphere – usually taboo – through the eyes of artists with a continuously changing point of view.

Unlike pornography, which often lacks imagination, erotic art allows us to partake in creative joy. Even if some of the pictures seem strange to us, or force us to confront taboos, we should still open ourselves to that experience. Real art has always caused offence. Only through a willingness to be affronted can this journey through the geography of pleasure be profitable, in the sense that it enriches our innermost selves. The humour evident in many works of erotic art is only accessible to those who can feel positive about claiming the erotic experience.

This book invites you to take a special journey, one that will open up a vista of pleasures and desires. An abundance of images and objects from art, as well as from religion, presents eroticism and sexuality as the universal, fundamental subject. By opening ourselves to its origins in a variety of cultures, some of them strange, we may enrich our own as well. The many and varied points of view encountered in these works demonstrate the multifarious aspects of sexuality, and reveal that nothing is more natural than sexual desire; yet paradoxically, nothing is less natural than the forms in which this desire expresses itself or finds satisfaction.

Items long hidden in the vaults of public museums and galleries of private collectors can be seen in this book. Many of these pictures and objects were forbidden in a Western society that was less open to sexuality and anything associated with it. Hence they grant us a rare and, therefore, fascinating glimpse of what is part and parcel of human nature. Pictures of the pleasures of the flesh contained here promise a feast for the eyes, albeit a distanced pleasure. Yet, is not the essence of eroticism that it should be just beyond reach?

The cultural history of humankind can extend the limits of tolerance by helping to expand the viewer’s opinion. It can also liberate minds from the clichés that may occupy our fantasies and imagination. Reading this book will hopefully achieve both these ends.

Hans-Jürgen Döpp