Spring scene by Hosoda Eishi (c1790)

Time for some more al fresco sex with this painting by the Japanese artist Hosoda Eishi (1756-1829). Most Japanese erotic art was in the form of woodblock prints and actual paintings, such as this, are rarer. The ability to use more subtle shading gives them a particular delicacy, however. Eishi, unusually for an artist at the time, was an aristocratic Samurai, as is his male protagonist here. The woman, however, is wearing a maid's clothing. This picture is from a set of twelve paintings of lovers, depicted at different times of the year. The river in the background is the Sumida in Edo (now known as Tokyo). On the right, on the far bank, can be seen the gateway to the Mimeguri shrine which is still there today. This area, at the time of the painting was a popular place to look at flowers. 

Here we have the view from close to the river, looking towards the Mimeguri shrine, today. You can just glimpse the pale ochre-coloured Sumida river on the left hand side of the photograph at the chest height of the man in a blue jacket Today, technically, despite the urbanisation of Tokyo, you could still have al fresco sex on this spot as it is the site of Kuntsu Sumida Park, a narrow open space which follows the river bank for just under a mile. The shrine is no longer visible from the spot across the river as the view is blocked by the elevated Metropolitan Expressway 6, which runs between it and the river bank.

Watery frolics in the style of Peter Fendi

Here is a group of paintings which were thought, for many years, to be by Austrian artist Peter Fendi (1796-1842).   Fendi was a pioneer in colour printing and also designed a number of banknotes for the Austrian government in 1841.  

These pictures (part of a set of forty) were not published until 1910, however, which makes their provenance as being by Fendi doubtful.  Fendi didn't produce so much as a nude so it would be surprising if these were indeed by him.  Nevertheless, some still maintain that they are his work.

Whoever did them, they have a sprightly joy about them, as groups of ladies and a couple of very excited (but faceless) gentlemen disport themselves in the water in a very tidy landscape.  

The other prints from this set are all depicted as being indoors and feature equally athletic and and joyfully unrealistic figures.  We will look at them another time.

I Modi 1: Angélique et Médor after Agostino Carracci and Giulio Romano

Back through the centuries for this piece of al fresco reverse cowgirl (as it would not have been called at the time!) action.  In a sylvan landscape a lady guides her lover's erection into her vagina while her companion gazes at it raptly.  We confess that this is still a sight that fills us with delight even after  nearly forty years!  No scrabbling around on the grass for this couple as they have a luxurious looking cushion and a large piece of fabric on which to disport themselves.

Marcantonio Raimondi

This picture has a rather convoluted history.  It is one of  a series of erotic engravings of sexual positions produced in book form under the title I Modi by Marcantonio Raimondi (1480-1534) in 1524.  An engraver, he based his pictures on a series of paintings produced by Giulio Romano (1499-1546) for the Duke of Mantua, Federico II Gonzago's new palazzo in Mantua.  Romano was unaware that Raimondi had used his paintings as the basis for his engravings until Raimondi was imprisoned by Pope Clement VII for producing them.  The  Pope ordered all copies of the books to be destroyed.  Romano escaped imprisonment as his paintings were a private commission and were not, unlike Raimondi's book, for public consumption.   

Pietro Aretino by Titian

The poet and author Pietro Aretino (1492-1556), after going to see Romano's originals, then composed sixteen erotic sonnets to accompany the pictures and he also helped get Raimondo released from prison.  A second edition of I modi was then published in 1527 which included Raimondi's illustrations and Aretino's sonnets, in the first known example of erotic pictures and text being included in one publication.

Apart from a few fragments in the British Museum, the 1527 edition is lost, although Aretino's sonnets survived.  Later Agostino Carracci (1557-1602) reconstructed the illustrations (he must have had access to at least a partial copy at that time, as his illustrations are very close to the British Museum fragments).  In 1798 another edition of I Modi was published in Paris with Carracci's engravings reworked by the French artist Jacques Joseph Coiny (1761-1809).  These are the illustrations we have today.

Angélique et Médor byToussaint Dubreuil (1561-1602)

The story of Angélique et Médor (all the illustrations in I Modi were of famous lovers of myth and history) comes from Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto (1477-1533).  Based on the much older Song of Roland (Roland and Orlando are the same person) it tells the story of Orlando's love for the pagan princess, Angélique who he married.  However, she began a passionate affair with the Saracen called Médor.   

Angélique et Médor by François Boucher (1763)

He carved her name into the bark of a tree but Orlando discovered it (you can just see his figure at the right of the engraving at the top of the post).  It was her betrayal that made him furioso.  Perhaps Roland, who as a Paladin of Charlemagne is a sort of French equivalent of Lancelot of King Arthur's round table, was boring in bed and didn't indulge in athletic al fresco girl on top bonking. Orlando carved the inscription off the tree and imprisoned his wife in a tower.   However, she told Orlando that he couldn't carve away her love for Médor and eventually Angélique killed herself, in a typical end for the sexually aggressive woman in European literature.

Angélique et Médor by Bartholomeus Spranger (1580)

The story of Angélique et Médor is not so well known today but during the renaissance and after the story of the lovers was an inspiration to a number of artists, although none display the graphic eroticism that Giulio Romano's lost painting would have had, given the engravings based upon it.

Two Reflected Ladies: French Postcards by Grundworth

Bob Guccione, in many of the pictorials he shot for Penthouse, often used mirrors in his pictorials. Proving that there is nothing new in photographic erotica here are some studies from a series produced by the French postcard studio Grundworth. 

 Like most of these postcard publishing outfits of the time, little is known about it, as, despite the widespread circulation of these cards (which were certainly tolerated amongst troops during the Great War) their production and distribution was illegal in France, hence the requirement for anonymity.

Grundworth produced erotic postcards from the 1890s to the 1930s.  Given the time span and a number of different styles the name is unlikely to represent an individual photographer but more likely a group of photographers who were, perhaps better known, but wanted to hide their real identities.  Grundworth cards were very collectable and are even more so today.  You can expect to pay from £75 to £150 each for these little treasures.

These photographs are often dated at 1935 but the gartered stockings probably indicate a slightly earlier date in the twenties, however.  These pictures are also sometimes known as ''women on a chaise longue' but the width of the piece of furniture is more likely to indicate some form of divan or other bed.