4 ms·

Revealing the Risqué Art of Pompeii’s House of the Vettii

24 points by diodorus 4y ago

lostmsu 4y ago
There's a website along with publicdomainreview and laphamsquarterly, that is posted relatively often but haven't really given any insights. My TinyTinyRSS instance shows 10+ articles from this domain on HN, neither being of what I'd call "intellectually curious". Oh, well, filter to autodelete.
thom 4y ago
Anyone got a link to somewhere cataloguing this imagery?
prox 4y ago
I find it kind of interesting that people are still so shocked by this. Even the article itself is kind of skittish a bit with a cultural bias. Nudity and nakedness, sex seems to be quite normal, especially before the 19th century. But victorian times, protestantism (US) and perhaps India as well made Nudity and Sex a lot more outlawed. Afaik that was a kind of global phenomenon and I am interested what the historical factors were.
- hnbad 4y ago
  Well, to be fair, erect pensises and depictions of intercourse are considered risqué if not pornographic even in most of Europe where you might see naked breasts on magazine covers in corner store displays.
  - prox 4y ago
    Indeed, no argument there. The point I am trying to make is that the moral framework changed so much apparently around the 19th century. Of course you have the British Victorian outlook, the US protestantism (which was quite more militant earlier probably, the pilgrim fathers were outcasts even among in Europe afaik) , and nudity in parts of India was not that strange, and statues tended to be nude as well. The British occupation might certainly have something to do with it. It’s interesting in as so much that it still pervades society these days, even though porn consumption is quite high in society probably. Someone I know worked for a sextoy factory and more conservative areas were much more likely to buy more and extreme toys interestingly enough.
coupdejarnac 4y ago
Lame, no pictures of the art being discussed in the article. Images are from Getty Images. The author is neither on location nor is an expert on the subject. The youtube channel toldinstone does a great job of exploring ruins and artifacts.
mrjh 4y ago
Strange title as AtlasObscura haven’t actually revealed anything; they’re almost as prudish as the original Victorian discoverers. Judging by this[1] less prudish source, it doesn’t even seem THAT shocking. There’s a lot of ‘normal’ fresco and only a few pieces of the cheeky stuff… [1] https://news.artnet.com/art-world/pompeii-reopens-house-of-vettii-penis-fresco-2243508 https://news.artnet.com/art-world/pompeii-reopens-house-of-v...
mseepgood 4y ago
Clickbait title. No risqué art is shown.
seydor 4y ago
Calling it "risque'" completely misses the mark (as does caling Priapus' fresco erotic; he is just weighing his penis with scales). Priapus was a household deity, pretty much like we have saints in today's world, and this is so regressive. And no reference to the beautiful statue of priapus in the same house. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Priapus_from_the_house_of_the_Vetii,_Pompeii_01.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Priapus_from_the_hou...
- bjourne 4y ago
  The giant penis isn't risqué, but the goatfucking is. :)
car 4y ago
Too bad the art isn't very much on display in this article. A great book on the topic is 'Eros in Pompeii', which depicts the Erotic Art collection of the Naples Museum [0]. In it is a picture of a statue named 'stupidus', after a character played in mimes. It totally cracked me up, since it immediately reminded me of the aptly named 'shirt cocker', a character encountered at clothing optional Burning Man. The linked Wikipedia article [1] and especially masters thesis have really good information as well [2]. [0] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eros-Pompeii-Erotic-Collection-Museum/dp/1556706200 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eros-Pompeii-Erotic-Collection-Muse... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erotic_art_in_Pompeii_and_Herculaneum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erotic_art_in_Pompeii_and_Herc... [2] https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/41621/Lundgren-Master.pdf https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/41621/Lundgren...
- hnbad 4y ago
  Can you elaborate on Stupidus for those of us who have neither read the book nor been to Burning Man? Googling "stupidus" provided even less insight than googling "shirt cocker" (even with any attempt of context). There's a dimly lit photograph of a stupidus statue as figure 11 in the PDF but that doesn't really explain anything either. Is it a character with a big penis and only wearing an upper body garment?
  - car 4y ago
    If you google again but as one word, you should get more hits. And yes, you're correct about the statue.

24 points by diodorus 4y ago

There's a website along with publicdomainreview and laphamsquarterly, that is posted relatively often but haven't really given any insights. My TinyTinyRSS instance shows 10+ articles from this domain on HN, neither being of what I'd call "intellectually curious". Oh, well, filter to autodelete.

thom 4y ago

Anyone got a link to somewhere cataloguing this imagery?

prox 4y ago

I find it kind of interesting that people are still so shocked by this. Even the article itself is kind of skittish a bit with a cultural bias. Nudity and nakedness, sex seems to be quite normal, especially before the 19th century. But victorian times, protestantism (US) and perhaps India as well made Nudity and Sex a lot more outlawed. Afaik that was a kind of global phenomenon and I am interested what the historical factors were.

hnbad 4y ago
Well, to be fair, erect pensises and depictions of intercourse are considered risqué if not pornographic even in most of Europe where you might see naked breasts on magazine covers in corner store displays.
- prox 4y ago
  Indeed, no argument there. The point I am trying to make is that the moral framework changed so much apparently around the 19th century. Of course you have the British Victorian outlook, the US protestantism (which was quite more militant earlier probably, the pilgrim fathers were outcasts even among in Europe afaik) , and nudity in parts of India was not that strange, and statues tended to be nude as well. The British occupation might certainly have something to do with it. It’s interesting in as so much that it still pervades society these days, even though porn consumption is quite high in society probably. Someone I know worked for a sextoy factory and more conservative areas were much more likely to buy more and extreme toys interestingly enough.

coupdejarnac 4y ago

Lame, no pictures of the art being discussed in the article. Images are from Getty Images. The author is neither on location nor is an expert on the subject. The youtube channel toldinstone does a great job of exploring ruins and artifacts.

mrjh 4y ago

Strange title as AtlasObscura haven’t actually revealed anything; they’re almost as prudish as the original Victorian discoverers. Judging by this[1] less prudish source, it doesn’t even seem THAT shocking. There’s a lot of ‘normal’ fresco and only a few pieces of the cheeky stuff… [1] https://news.artnet.com/art-world/pompeii-reopens-house-of-vettii-penis-fresco-2243508 https://news.artnet.com/art-world/pompeii-reopens-house-of-v...

mseepgood 4y ago

Clickbait title. No risqué art is shown.

seydor 4y ago

Calling it "risque'" completely misses the mark (as does caling Priapus' fresco erotic; he is just weighing his penis with scales). Priapus was a household deity, pretty much like we have saints in today's world, and this is so regressive. And no reference to the beautiful statue of priapus in the same house. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Priapus_from_the_house_of_the_Vetii,_Pompeii_01.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Priapus_from_the_hou...

bjourne 4y ago
The giant penis isn't risqué, but the goatfucking is. :)

car 4y ago

Too bad the art isn't very much on display in this article. A great book on the topic is 'Eros in Pompeii', which depicts the Erotic Art collection of the Naples Museum [0]. In it is a picture of a statue named 'stupidus', after a character played in mimes. It totally cracked me up, since it immediately reminded me of the aptly named 'shirt cocker', a character encountered at clothing optional Burning Man. The linked Wikipedia article [1] and especially masters thesis have really good information as well [2]. [0] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eros-Pompeii-Erotic-Collection-Museum/dp/1556706200 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eros-Pompeii-Erotic-Collection-Muse... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erotic_art_in_Pompeii_and_Herculaneum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erotic_art_in_Pompeii_and_Herc... [2] https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/41621/Lundgren-Master.pdf https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/41621/Lundgren...

hnbad 4y ago
Can you elaborate on Stupidus for those of us who have neither read the book nor been to Burning Man? Googling "stupidus" provided even less insight than googling "shirt cocker" (even with any attempt of context). There's a dimly lit photograph of a stupidus statue as figure 11 in the PDF but that doesn't really explain anything either. Is it a character with a big penis and only wearing an upper body garment?
- car 4y ago
  If you google again but as one word, you should get more hits. And yes, you're correct about the statue.