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).
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© 2013 John R. Clarke
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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
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137367938_8
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