Roman oil lamp depicting the position of the greyhound.

The performances are erotic paintings , sculptures , photographs , music and literature that show or describe scenes with sex. We find erotic representations of sexual acts in almost every culture, whether ancient or modern. The oldest civilizations have often associated the sexual act with supernatural forces, and the representations thereof, and spirituality are often intertwined. In Asian countries such as the India , the Japan and China , representations of sex and erotic art have specific meanings within religions born in those countries that are the Hindu , the Buddhist , the Shinto and Taoism. The Greeks and the Romans are in turn responsible for many artistic and erotic decorations, also from their religious beliefs and cultural particularly influential in western Europe .

More recently, erotic performances have evolved, ranging from luxury item to advertising tool, providing some product or way of life. Communication technologies have also evolved, each new technique, such as the printing , the photography , the movies and computers have been so many new media and means of dissemination of these representations .

Reactions to erotic representations throughout history

Roman painting typical of Pompeii.

In earliest times, erotic performances were a subset of the indigenous or religious art of various cultures and as such were not treated differently or marginalized. The concept of pornography , in its current direction, appeared only from the ^nineteenth century , during the Victorian era. Its original definition was born in 1860 , replacing the ancient writings about prostitutes . The word appears for the first time in an English medical dictionary of 1857 , and is defined as the "description of prostitutes or prostitution, for the sake of public hygiene." Five years later, however, a second definition, more obscene, appears in Webster's Dictionary: "Paint or licentious literature, in particular, ancient painting used to decorate the walls dedicated to orgies bacchanaliennes. Although certain sexual practices were controlled or banned, simply because of the look of objects and images depicting his actions were suppressed or prohibited in any country until 1857. In some cases, possession of certain books, engravings or image was illegal, but the establishment of laws restricting or prohibiting watching sexually explicit date mainly from the Victorian era .

When large excavations Pompeii were undertaken in the 1860s , much of erotic art Roman was discovered, shocking the Victorians who saw the intellectual heirs of the Roman Empire. Not knowing what to do with explicit representations of sexuality, they tried to hide from the public. Items were locked in the secret museum in Naples , in Italy , and which was not subject was covered and protected, so as not to offend the sensibilities of women, children and the working class. Soon after, the laws in England (and parts of the world) criminalizing pornography was enacted with the adoption in England of the Obscene Publications Act 1857 . Despite their occasional repression, descriptions of erotic themes are common throughout history .

Early performances

In the West

Prehistory

The Venus of Willendorf statuette prehistoric.

Erotic representations of the oldest found are paintings and engravings in the caves of Paleolithic. The images most common findings are those of animals, hunting scenes and descriptions of genital human (thought to be symbols of fertility). Naked human beings, some with exaggerated sexual characteristics, are depicted in some paintings and artifacts from the Paleolithic (eg Paleolithic Venus ). Discoveries in the caves of Creswell in England , think back more than 12 000 years, contain a few symbols that could be stylized representations of female genitalia. However, there is no information about the erotic nature of these, and it is likely that these objects were used in religious rituals . Archaeologists in Germany reported in April 2005 that they had found what they believe to be a scene 7200 years old depicting a male figure bending over a female figure, simulating sexual intercourse. The male figure was named Adonis von Zschernitz . However, it is not clear that the purpose of these artifacts have been sexually aroused. It is likely that these images may have had a spiritual significance and are probably related to the rituals of fertility.

Antiquity

Court scene pederast a traditional amphora Athenian ^fifth century.

The ancient Greeks often painted sexual scenes on their ceramics , many of them are well known because they are the representations and homosexual pederast earliest available today. Greek art often depicts sex, but it is impossible to distinguish what was illegal or immoral since the ancient Greeks had no concept of pornography. Their art reflects simply scenes of everyday life, some more sex than others. The circumcised phallus are visible in places of worship such as the temple of Dionysus on the island of Delos , while Herma , a small statuette consists of a head on a rectangular base from which rises a phallus, was an object current and an amulet of protection. The Greek ideal of masculinity had a small penis, an aesthetic that the Romans later adopted ^{, ,} .

There are numerous sexually explicit paintings and sculptures in the Roman ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum but the original meanings of his performances are variable. On the one hand, in the Villa of Mysteries in Pompeii, we can observe a ritual flogging scene that is clearly associated with a religious cult image whose meaning can be considered more religious than sexual. On the other hand, paints a brothel in describing various sexual acts are seen in the lintels above each door. The Romans regarded the sexual depictions as decorations in good taste and an object such as cut Warren at most as a "bait-conversation", in fact, the images reflect the habits and sexual practices of their culture. Sexual acts considered taboo (such as those expected to sully the purity of the mouth) are depicted in the bathrooms, in a comic purpose. Representations of large phallus were frequent at the entrance of houses, because the phallus was a sign of luck. One of the earliest evidence found when the complex was found was a statue of marble showing the god Pan having sex with a goat , an explicit representation of bestiality considered obscene if it was long hidden from the public and remains at the Museum Secret of Naples ^{, ,} . It is currently freely exposed.

Christianity

Christian iconography based (or should rely) on the second of the Ten Commandments : Thou shalt not graven image. (Exodus 20: 4). Radical in its application, the ban led to the iconoclasm. In any event, in the Christian world, the erotic representation suffers from the link is made between sexuality and original sin and tends to disappear if not, to become taboo.

The erotic scenes are common on the illuminated medieval , but were accessible only to those who could get books handmade extremely expensive. Most of these illuminations are on the books of hours. Many scholars of medieval thought that these images have met the expectations of both erotic and religious for a book. Others believe that these performances were a form of moral attention, but the description of priests and other senior officials in sexual acts lead to think of political goals .

In other civilizations

Shunga (Japan)

The Moche of Peru are an ancient people who represented other explicit sexual content in their pottery. Their goal, however, was different from other ancient cultures. The Moche believed that the world of the dead was the exact opposite of the life world. Thus, as offerings funeral , they realized vessels showing sexual acts such as masturbation , the fellatio and sodomy , sexual acts without purpose of reproduction. Their hope was that in the world of the dead, they take the opposite meaning of fertility .

A prince and his partner on a terrace at night (India)

There is a long tradition of erotic painting in Asia. The Japanese , the Chinese , the Indian , the Persian and other countries have produced large quantities of art celebrating the human act of love. Both works depict love between men and women than between the same sex. In Japan, erotic art has found its greatest development in the work of Japanese prints. This style is known as the Shunga and some of its classic representatives (such as Harunobu , Utamaro ) produced a large number of works. The rolls of paper hand-painted were also very popular. Shunga appeared in the ^thirteenth century and continued to grow in an extremely popular until the ^nineteenth century , when photography was invented. The Chinese tradition of eroticism was also very important, with works dating back to the erotic arts Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). The erotic art of China reached its zenith during the late Ming dynasty (1368-1644) .

Distribution of mass

Only when the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg as the sexually explicit images were distributed widely in the Western world. Before that time, the dissemination of erotic images, handmade and expensive, was limited to men of upper classes who have deliberately kept out of the working class, fearing the effect that such things occur on lust Animal of the uneducated. Even the British Museum has a room closed to the public containing a collection of ancient erotic images given by the doctor and aristocrat George Witt in 1865. The remains of the collection, including his albums, still reside in the compartment 55, although the majority of this collection was recently integrated with other museum collections .

Erotic engraving supposed Agostino Carracci (1557-1602).

Literature

In the ^sixteenth century , an attempt to print erotic material caused a scandal when Italians Pietro Aretino (Pierre Aretino) and Marcantonio Raimondi produced the I Modi in 1524, an illustrated book of 16 "poses" or sexual positions. Raimondi had already published the I Modi once before, and was imprisoned by Pope Clement VII and all copies of the illustrations were destroyed. Raimondi based his engravings on a series of erotic paintings that Giulio Romano was doing as a command to the Palazzo Te in Mantua. Although the two works were very similar, only Raimondi was prosecuted because his prints could be seen by the public. Romano failed for prints until qu'Aretino Romano visit to see the original paintings on which Romano was still working. Aretino then compound 16 sonnets with explicit lyrics to go with paintings and the release of Raimondi. The I Modi was then edited a second time, with poems and pictures, and was the first erotic combination of text and images, though the papacy once more seized all the copies he could find. Raimondi escaped prison this time, but the censorship was so important that no original copy was never found. The existing text today is a copy of a copy discovered 400 years later ^, .

In the ^seventeenth century , a large number of pornographic or erotic literature began to circulate, mostly printed in Amsterdam , and distributed illegally in various European countries. Among these is The School Girl, a French book printed in 1655 and regarded as the beginnings of pornography in France. It consists of a dialogue between two women shown, a 16 year old daughter and her cousin more than worldly fact explicit sexual discussions. The author remains unknown to date, although some authors were sentenced to short prison terms for being the supposed author of the work . In his famous diary, Samuel Pepys says he bought a copy of the School for girls playing solitaire and then burned it to not be discovered by his wife .

The illustrated history of Juliette Marquis de Sade.

During the Enlightenment , many of the French free-thinkers have begun to exploit the child for purposes of criticism and social satire. Pornography libertine , constituting a subversive social forum, often referred to the Catholic Church and attitudes regarding sexual repression. An explicit market brochures, inexpensive and mass produced, emerged because of the bourgeoisie, creating concern among the upper classes, who feared that the moral of the working class was corrupt, women, slaves and uneducated are considered particularly vulnerable at this time. The stories and illustrations (sold in the galleries of the Palais Royal , with the services of prostitutes) were often anticlerical and filled with priests, monks and other nuns behaving badly, a tradition which survived until the French pornography ^twentieth century. In the period preceding the French Revolution , pornography was also used for political purposes; Marie-Antoinette was often referred to and fantasies relating to these activities accounted orgies, lesbians activities, the paternity of her children, and rumors about supposed sexual inadequacies of Louis XVI ^, . During and after the revolution, the famous work of the Marquis de Sade were published. They were often accompanied by illustrations and formed a support policy .

In England, a similar phenomenon occurs with the release of Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Memoirs of a prostitute), then renamed as the Fanny Hill , written in 1748 by John Cleland. While this novel mocked literary conventions and styles of his time, the scandal was chiefly on the fact that it described a woman, the narrator, who took pleasure in sexual acts devoid of morality. The text was strongly expressed that Cleland was using all the many euphemisms to describe sexual acts and body parts, up to fifty different terms used to name the penis. The Church of England asked the authorities to ban the book and the author was arrested and charged, although copies of the book continued to sell under the counter and it was one of the most reprinted books in English. This book was, however, prohibits the United States until 1963 and the United Kingdom until 1970 .

Photo

Nude photography of the ^nineteenth century.

In 1839 , Jacques Daguerre introduced the first process of photography at the Academy of Sciences French . Unlike earlier photographic processes, his daguerreotypes allowed a quality and detail never before achieved, and do not degrade over time. The new technology does not pass unnoticed by artists eager to portray a new way the female body. Traditionally, an academy was an exercise in naked made by a painter to master the male or female body. Each of its work should be registered with the French government and approved by him if he would be sold. Soon, nude photographs were recorded as the academy, and marketed as support and assistance to painters. However, the realism of photography in relation to that of painting made more intrinsically erotic photographs. In Nude photography, 1840-1920, Peter Marshall stated then that "the prevailing moral climate at the time of the invention of photography, the only officially sanctioned photography of the body that were used to support the production of studies of the artist. Several examples of daguerreotypes are clearly not of this style and have a sensuality that clearly classifies them as pictures erotic or pornographic. " ^, .

The daguerreotypes were not without drawbacks, however. The main problem lay in the fact that each image was an original, and that the process did not yet negative. In addition, the first daguerreotypes were asking for exposure time of about three to fifteen minutes, making them impractical for shooting scenes. Unlike pictorial art of the past, the action was impossible to show. The poses requested of models should be held for an extended period. It is for this reason that the standard did not include pornographic image several people in sexual situations, but was limited to the photograph of single women exposing their genitals. These photographs are extremely expensive, the cost could reach the equivalent of a week's wages, the public of those nudes was mostly composed of artists and people of the upper classes of society. It was also cheaper to hire a prostitute than have a picture of a nude in the 1840s . The stereoscope , invented in 1838 , became extremely popular for viewing daguerreotypes, including erotic images. This technology produces a type of three-dimensional view perfectly suited for erotic images . Although thousands of erotic daguerreotypes were produced, only 800 are visible today, however, their uniqueness and value reflect the fact that they were once the playthings of rich men. Because of their rarity, some work can sell for more than 10 000 GBP .

In 1841 , William Henry Fox Talbot patented the process calotype first method for obtaining a paper negative and therefore the ability to reproduce images by simply drawing . This invention enabled the production of an unlimited number of prints, from a simple negative. In addition, the reduction of exposure time allowed for the emergence of a true mass market for pornographic photographs. The technology was immediately used to reproduce nude portraits, Paris and soon became the center of this trade. In 1848 , only thirteen photography studios existed in Paris , in 1860 , there were over 400. Most of them took advantage of illegally selling pornography to the masses who were then able to obtain it. The pictures were also sold near train stations , representatives of trade and women in the streets who hid them under their robes. They were often produced in sets of four, eight or twelve copies, and exported mainly to England and the United States. Models and photographers were generally working class, and it was increasingly difficult to use the argument for artistic pose. From 1855 , no more nude photography was recorded as academy, and the trade in such photograph remained underground to escape prosecution .

Photograph by Eadweard Muybridge : Woman walking naked.

Victorian pornographic tradition in Britain is based on three main elements: French photographs, erotic publications (available in shops in Holywell Street Street, a long avenue of London has now disappeared, replaced by the Aldwych), and printed literature. The ability to reproduce photographs mass contributed to the rise of a new type of market, the market for pornography. Many of these dealers took advantage of the postal system by sending their subscribers with photo cards in opaque packaging. Thus, the development of a reliable international postal system facilitated the beginnings of trade pornography.

Press and Magazine

In 1880 , the invention of the printing dot, now used in magazines, permits the large-scale reproduction of photographs . This invention enabled pornography and eroticism to new directions at the dawn of the ^twentieth century. The new printing methods would then allow easy reproduction of photographic images in black and white, whereas printers were previously limited to etching and engraving or drawing for illustration . With this method of printing and reproduction, pornography passes first stage of the consumer market, quantitatively and financially accessible than ever it had been before .

The magazine first appeared in France and included photographs of naked women (often, actresses burlesque were used as models) or half-naked, both inside and on the covers of them. While these photographs could be classified as erotic "soft" today, they were quite shocking for its time. Soon, the magazine took the form of erotic art magazines, or magazines celebrating the cult of naturism , with titles such as Photo Bits, Body in Art, Figure Photography, Nude Living and Modern Art for Men . Health and Efficiency , started in 1900 , was a typical naturist magazine in the UK .

Pornography on the paper also took the form of comics , in comic books known as the Tijuana Bibles , or Dirty Comics, produced in the United States from the 1920s and until the advent of magazines on paper icy. These small books are often very poorly made, diverting popular series such as Jikes ( Family Illico ), Little Orphan Annie , Popeye , or Mickey Mouse .

In the 1940s , the word " pinup "was coined to describe the images from magazines or calendars and men on the wall by American soldiers during the Second World War. While the pictures of the 1940s focused more particularly on the legs, chest, took out the women erotic photographs increasingly important in the 1950s. Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe were two of the pinups of the most popular their time. During the second half of the ^twentieth century , eroticism and pornography have evolved in such magazines as Playboy , or Modern Man in 1950.

Cinematography

Images from an erotic film in Austria.

Another technological advance that has profoundly changed the perception and representation of eroticism is the emergence of cinema. & RedLINK = 1 "class =" new "title =" William Laurie Dickson (non-existent page) "> William Laurie Dickson, an employee of Thomas Alva Edison , invented the first film to celluloid and fixed size of 35mm , a standard still used today. He then worked on the Kinetoscope , or peep show ", which he is the inventor of an idea of Edison, the first unit shooting in the history of cinema which could march in a film loop. This device was the forerunner of the cinema projector ^, .

The idea of projecting a movie on a screen in front of an audience was a European invention. In 1895 , Robert W. Paul and Auguste and Louis Lumiere effecturent the first public demonstration of their movie projector . Pornographic films were produced almost immediately after the medium was invented. Two of the pioneers of the porn movie was so Pirou Eugene and Albert Kirchner , who realized for the first film Pirou still available today under the name of "Lear." The film 1896 The Sunset of Miss Marie Louise shows Willy performing a striptease. Curiously, historians remember mostly the Albert Kirchner as the first man to have made a film about the life of Christ (The Passion of Christ). The film inspired a Pirou current French cinematographic films showing only women undressing (saucy scenes to spice character), when other filmmakers realized what benefits they could derive from such films ^, .

Since Pirou is virtually unknown as a director of pornographic films, is often described as other films that first pornographic films. According to Patrick Robertson's book Film Facts, "the pornographic movie is probably the oldest coat of gold or good hostel" made in France in 1908 , the film tells the story of a soldier who has a las affair with the maid of a hostel. The Argentine film El Satario could be even older, with an estimated completion date of between 1907 and 1912. Patrick Robertson also wrote that "the earliest pornographic films today are still visible in the collection American Kinsey. One film demonstrates how early pornographic conventions were established. The German film Am Abend (1910) is "a ten minute film about a woman starting masturbating alone in her room and progressing to scenes in which she engages with a man to fellatio and anal intercourse " .

Soon illegal, these films were from the 1940s and for many years, clandestinely produced by amateurs. The treatment of the film required a considerable time and resources, for example with people using the bath for the treatment of dandruff. The films were then circulated privately or through sales representatives, although the possession or viewing of such films were subject to prison ^, .

The postwar era saw the development stimulate the growth of a consumer market. The evolution of technology developments, particularly with the onset of formats 8mm film and Super 8 have led to a widespread use of amateur film.

Video and digital media

Erotic digital image reworked

From 1982 , most pornographic films were drawn on the support of cheaper and more convenient than is the videotape. Many directors have resisted in the beginning of this trend, mainly due to the different quality of image that produced the videotape, however, those who adopted this technology earned the most from the market because the new format video tape was acclaimed by the public. This change in technology has quickly made, so total, until the filmmakers realize that continuing to film stock was no longer economically viable. This change had resulted in a possibility of viewing pornographic movies in the home and out of theaters , and rang the end of the age of big budget porn productions. The child returned to his roots and early spread to cover every fetish possible since filming has become very inexpensive. Instead of a past production amounting to hundreds of pornographic films annually, thousands of movies are now produced each year, also including compilations of existing videos of sex scenes ^, .

The CD-ROM erotic were popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s because they brought an element of interactivity previously unknown. However, their poor quality was a drawback and the drop in sales came with the development of Internet. Like the revolution effected by the videotape, the Internet rapidly becomes the preferred source of pornography for many people, offering privacy, anonymity and the ability to interact and correspond with any others. The recent explosion of new digital technologies such as digital cameras , and their accessibility, have helped to blur the line between film, photography and erotic amateur and professional productions. New technology allowed the emergence and accessibility equipment to easily produce and direct films. Much of today's pornography is produced by amateurs. Digital media were revolutionary in the fact they allowed photographers or filmmakers to manipulate images as it had never been possible .

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