The erotic art of ancient Pompeii



The Erotic Art of Ancient Pompeii

Catherine Carvajal

March 18, 2010

Art History 1

The ancient Roman city of Pompeii is made up of beautiful villas, streets, coliseums, bathhouses and brothels. It also houses some of the world’s most risqué forms of artwork ever found from ancient ruins. This erotic art shows up in many different forms, everything from frescos that line entire rooms to cobblestones on the roads.

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Figure 1: Pompeii, Street of Abundance, phallus carved in basalt paving stone (Clarke, 6)

These works are also found in private rooms of the houses of the town’s upper echelon as well as being very visible in the public sectors of town. It seemed that sexual behavior was appropriate and open in Pompeii.

This research paper will examine specific works of art in both in private and public sectors of the city and explore the purpose of this art. What functions did such images play? What was the significance of various images? Overall I would like to further understand why Roman society in Pompeii had such a fetish for erotic art. By understanding these questions we can begin to understand the personalities and lifestyles of the Roman citizens of Pompeii.

A Town Turned to Ash

The discovered city of Pompeii is located in southern Italy between Naples and Sorrento. In 79 BCE the volcano Vesuvius erupted burying the entire city. People were struck down during their everyday activities, and many of their forms were preserved by the volcanic ash.

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Figure 2: Death of an inhabitant of Pompeii (Etienne, 11)

Pompeii is considered to be one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world. The first formal excavations of Pompeii took place in 1748. The remains of the city have stood the test of time from bombings that occurred in 1943 during WWII to a major earthquake that caused enormous damage to the ruins in 1980. Inside the ruins are currently closed to the public to help preserve what is left of this amazing piece of history.

The patron goddess of the Roman city of Pompeii was Venus; goddess of love and all acts of love. Inhabits of Pompeii wanting to show respect towards their city’s deity could be one of the main reasons why so much erotic art is found at Pompeii.

Erotic Art in Public

Scenes depicting erotic acts were uncovered in many different public areas within Pompeii. While the images depicted seem overly explicit to been found in a public setting, it has been discovered that many of these images were actually used as aids for the uneducated lower class. This can best be demonstrated in art found in bathhouses and brothels.

Bathhouses were a place primarily for relaxation, getting clean, and discussing current events with your neighbor. Many of the bathhouses had frescos that depicted both erotic and non-erotic art. “…baths were painted to give the bather the illusion of a pool set in a beautiful garden.[1]” The mixture of calming scenes of nature with erotic images seems like a very bizarre combination, but there was purpose behind it.

Visiting the bathhouse would be like going to a modern day sauna at a gym or health spa. When you arrive you strip down, place your clothes in a locker and go about relaxing in the heated rooms. In ancient Pompeii, a container system, similar to lockers, was uncovered in one of the main bathhouses. Erotic scenes painted over containers with numbers on it were a way for illiterate people to know which container they left their clothes in.

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Figure 3: Wall decoration at Suburban bathhouses of erotic scenes with numbered boxes underneath them (Varone, 30)

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Figure 4: A panel close up (Berry, 110)

Bone carved tokens that bare the same erotic depiction above the containers in the changing room were also found in the bathhouses. On one side of the token are numbers ranging from I to XVI, which corresponds with the numbers on the containers in the bathhouse as well. Scholars have concluded that these carved tokens acted like a key or tool that would have been used to help illiterate people remember where they may have left their clothes after using the bath. This would allow the bather to either use the erotic depiction or the number. “What counts, however, is that , apart from the functional use of such tokens in the changing room…the erotic scenes, whose humorous satiric intent at this point is clear, provided an amusing way for the public, even the completely illiterate, to remember where they had left their clothes.[2]”

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Figure 5: Erotic token to boxes at Suburban bathhouses, made of bone and on one side showing two people in the act of love with a woman astride a man and back side the numerical number of a box being used (Varone, 37)

Prostitution was very common in Ancient Pompeii, and the art found in brothels not only were erotic in context, but also served another purpose. The hallways of the brothels were decorated with names of prostitutes, various sexual acts and prices as found in one brothel know as the Lupanar. These pictures acted as advertising for the types of services offered by the prostitutes.

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Figure 6: One of the explicate wall-paintings found in the hallway of the Lupanar (Berry, 111)

House of the Centenary

Erotic art was also found in many of the private homes excavated. The House of the Centenary is one of the noblest homes of Pompeii. It has been considered to be one of the most well preserved homes after the eruption of Vesuvius, and one of the most preserved parts of the house is the erotic frescoes that line the interior walls of the home. Although this house does give many good examples of erotic art work, especially male on female depictions, there is one area of the house in particular where erotic art was being used for sexual acts.

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Figure 7: Floor Plan of the House of the Centenary (Berry, 157)

When first entering the atrium of the house (labeled B), there are 6 cubiculi (bedrooms) that line both the west and east walls. In the most direct eastern room (labeled D) is a strange looking square door that would be too small to be used as a window for light, and also too small to be able to pass food or other objects through the opening as well. This room is also heavily decorated with other depictions of erotic art. The small opening would be used for putting erotic pictures in and out of the area, so that the viewer in the room could have a variety of erotic art to view.

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Figures 8 and 9: Picture of opening for tabulae pictae for erotic depictions (Varone, 66)

It seems very logical that a slave could have been on the other side of the wall, and while the master and his guest were partaking in sexual intercourse the slave could load an erotic fresco into the insert in the wall, and open the doors to suggest a new position. “…the owner of the house had bought pictures and had them inserted into the existing decoration directly on the wall. This phenomenon has been found elsewhere in Pompeii in important houses, such as in the House of Menander… These were made on perishable material that has not survived. Such pictures, which the context leaves no the slightest doubt were of erotic content… Covered until the door was opened, the picture was revealed to suggest a particular sexual position. The possibility that the picture could easily be replaced from the adjacent room, perhaps by a slave meant that each time the door opened there appeared a new scene and position, in an erotic game of variety and surprise.[3]”

This use of erotic art seems to demonstrate that for some members of the upper class that eroticism and sex were very much apart of their daily lives. This room used by the owner of the House of Centenary probably created this interchangeable art stand so that variety and excitement could be accomplished during intercourse. Varone makes the comment in the quote above that other such things were found in other homes as well, suggesting that while the lower class attended the Lupanar for sexual entertainment, that the upper class had the space and money to create there own brothel in their home. Allowing them to have there sexual pleasures come to life in the comfort of there own home, where they could not be seen mingling or copulating with the lower class of society.

Erotic art and sex were apart of Roman life and society. Instead of condemning the art work (which occurred for several years in the secret rooms of the Naples Museum), we should accept this artwork for the natural beauty and practical uses that the Romans used it for. By further understanding and learning about these depictions, their uses, and their placement in both the private and public spheres of the city, it gives us a better understanding of the life of the people of Pompeii.

Work Cited

Alesandra, Stanley. “What Scandalous Doin’s in the Ruin’s of Pompeii.” The New York

Times, April 2000: 1-3.

Amery, Colin, and Brian Curran Jr. The Lost World of Pompeii. Los Angeles: Getty

Publications, 2002. Print.

Berry, Joan. The Complete Pompeii. New York: Thames & Hudson, Ltd. 2007. Print.

Etienne, Robert. Pompeii, The Day a City Died. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1992.

Print.

Jashemski, Wilhelmina F. The Gardens of Pompeii: Herculaneum and the Villas

Destroyed by Vesuvius. New York: Caratzas Brothers Publishers, 1979. Print.

Varone, Antonio. Eroticism in Pompeii. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2001. Print.

Wilkinson, Paul. Pompeii, The Last Day. London: BBC Books, BBC Worldwide Ltd.,

2004. Print.

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[1] Jashemski, 74

[2] Varone, 37

[3] Varone, 69

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