One of the most curious buildings recovered was in fact a Lupanar ( brothel), which had many erotic paintings and graffiti inside. As previously mentioned, some of the paintings and frescoes became immediately famous because they represented erotic, sometimes explicit, sexual scenes.
It is unclear whether the images on the walls were advertisements for the services offered or merely intended to heighten the pleasure of the visitors. "Erotic Art in Pompeii" by Michael Grant, p. 52) Minors are still only allowed entry to the once-secret cabinet in the presence of a guardian, or with written permission.Īn erotic wall painting on the walls of a small room at the side of the kitchen from The House of the Vettii, Pompeii.(cf. Re-opened, closed, re-opened again and then closed again for nearly 100 years, the Secret Museum, Naples was briefly made accessible at the end of the 1960s (the time of the sexual revolution) and was finally re-opened for viewing in 2000. In 1819, when King Francis I of Naples visited the Pompeii exhibition at the Naples National Archaeological Museum with his wife and daughter, he was embarrassed by the erotic artwork and ordered it to be locked away in a "secret cabinet", accessible only to "people of mature age and respected morals". This clash of cultures led to many erotic artefacts from Pompeii being locked away from the public for nearly 200 years. Depictions of the phallus, for example, could be used in gardens to encourage the production of fertile plants. However, much of what might strike modern viewers as erotic imagery, such as oversized phalluses, could arguably be fertility imagery. The ubiquity of such imagery and items indicates that the treatment of sexuality in ancient Rome was more relaxed than current Western culture. These digs revealed the cities to be rich in erotic artefacts such as statues, frescoes, and household items decorated with sexual themes. The Roman cities around the bay of Naples were destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, thereby preserving their buildings and artefacts until extensive archaeological excavations began in the 18th century.
"Pan copulating with goat" – one of the best known objects in the Naples Museum collectionĮrotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum has been both exhibited as art and censored as pornography.