Fragonard's The Swing is suggestive rather than explicit, but in the 18th century depicting a lady with a man able to look up her skirts was considered highly erotic. Jean-Honoré Fragonard ( April 5, 1732 &ndash August 22, 1806) was a French painter and Printmaker whose late Rococo The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar, in accordance with the Anno Domini / Common Era numbering system

Erotic art covers any artistic work including paintings, sculptures, photographs, music and writings that is intended to evoke erotic arousal or that depicts scenes of love-making. In Fine art, a work of art (or artwork or work) is a creation such as a Song, Book, Film, Video game, Painting (pān'tīng in Art, is the practice of applying Color to a Surface (support base such as e Photography (fә'tɒgrәfi or fә'tɑːgrәfi (from Greek φωτο and γραφία is the process and Art of recording pictures by means of capturing Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. Generally speaking human sexuality is how people experience and express themselves as sexual beings

Definition

For more details on this topic, see Erotic literature. Erotic literature comprises fictional and factual stories and accounts which sexually arouse the reader whether written with that intention or not

Defining erotic art is difficult since perceptions of both what is erotic and what is art fluctuate. A sculpture of a phallus in some African cultures may be considered a traditional symbol of potency though not overtly erotic. The word phallus can refer to an erect Penis, or to an object shaped like a penis

Erotic Netsuke made of mammoth ivory sculptured in Japan.

In addition, a distinction is often made between erotic art and pornography (which also depicts scenes of love-making and is intended to evoke erotic arousal, but is not usually considered art). Pornography or porn is the explicit depiction of Sexual subject matter with the sole intention of sexually exciting the viewer The distinction may lie in intent and message; erotic art intended as pieces of art, encapturing formal elements of art, and drawing on other historical artworks. Pornography may also use these tools, but is primarily intended to arouse one sexually. Nevertheless, these elements of distinction are highly subjective.

For instance, Justice Potter Stewart of the Supreme Court of the United States, in attempting to explain "hard-core" pornography, or what is obscene, famously wrote, "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced . Potter Stewart ( January 23 1915 &ndash December 7 1985) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. . . [b]ut I know it when I see it . . . . "^[1]

Historical

Hermit monk performing auparashtika on a princely visitor. MONK is a Monte Carlo software package for simulating nuclear processes particularly for the purpose of determining the neutron multiplication factor or k-effective Oral sex refers to sexual activities involving the use of the Mouth, and may include use of the Tongue, Teeth, and Throat, in order Temple of Chhapri, Central India, 12th century. Khajuraho.

Moche Ceramic Depicting Fellatio. 200 A. D.

For more details on this topic, see History of erotic depictions#Early depictions. The history of erotic

For more details on this topic, see Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum. Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum was discovered in the ancient cities around the bay of Naples (particularly of Pompeii and Herculaneum) after extensive

Among the oldest surviving examples of erotic depictions are Paleolithic cave paintings and carvings, but many cultures have created erotic art. The term Paleolithic (or Palaeolithic) (from Greek παλαιός palaios, " Old " and λίθος Lithos, "stone" The ancient Greeks painted sexual scenes on their ceramics, many of them famous for being some of the earliest depictions of same-sex relations and pederasty, and there are numerous sexually explicit paintings on the walls of ruined Roman buildings in Pompeii. The Greeks ( Greek: Έλληνες) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions Pompeii is a ruined and partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples and Caserta in the Italian region of Campania, in The Moche of Peru in South America are another ancient people that sculpted explicit scenes of sex into their pottery. The Moche civilization (alternately the Mochica culture Early Chimu Pre-Chimu Proto-Chimu etc Peru (Perú Piruw Piruw officially the Republic of Peru ( reˈpuβlika del peˈɾu is a country in western South America. South America is a Continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a ^[2] There is an entire gallery devoted to pre-Columbian erotic ceramics (Moche culture) in Lima at the Larco Museum. The Moche civilization (alternately the Mochica culture Early Chimu Pre-Chimu Proto-Chimu etc Lima is the Capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers on a coast overlooking The Larco Museum (Museo Larco is located in the Pueblo Libre District in Lima, Peru.

Love of archery, Verma, c~1780.

Additionally, there has been a long tradition of erotic painting among the Eastern cultures. In Japan, for example, shunga appeared in the 13th century and continued to grow in popularity until the late 19th century when photography was invented. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. is a Japanese term for Erotic Pictures Most shunga are a type of Ukiyo-e, usually executed in woodblock print format ^[3] Similarly, the erotic art of China reached its popular peak during the latter part of the Ming Dynasty. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National The Ming Dynasty ( or Empire of the Great Ming ( was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol -led ^[4] In India, the famous Kama Sutra is an ancient sex manual that is still popularly read throughout the world. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country The Kama Sutra ( Sanskrit: कामसूत्र (alternative spellings Kamasutram or simply Kamasutra) is an ancient Indian ^[5]

In Europe, starting with the Renaissance, there was a tradition of producing erotica for the amusement of the aristocracy. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere In the early 16th century, the text I Modi was an woodcut album created by the designer Giulio Romano, the engraver Marcantonio Raimondi and the poet Pietro Aretino. I Modi ( The Ways, also known as The 16 Pleasures) is a famous essentially lost erotic book of the Italian Renaissance. For the origins of the technique and non-artistic use see Woodblock printing; for the related technique invented in the 18th century see Wood engraving Giulio Romano (c 1499 &ndash November 1, 1546) was an Italian painter and architect. Marcantonio Raimondi, also simply Marcantonio, (c 1480 &ndash c Pietro Aretino ( April 20, 1492 – October 21, 1556) was an Italian Author, Playwright, Poet and In 1601 Caravaggio painted the "Amor Vincit Omnia," for the collection of the Marquis Vincenzo Giustiniani. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, usually just known as Caravaggio, (28 September 1571 – 18 July 1610 was an Italian Artist active in Rome Amor Vincit Omnia (meaning "Love Conquers All" known in English by a variety of names including Amor Victorious, Victorious Cupid The tradition is continued by other, more modern painters, such as Fragonard, Courbet, Millet, Balthus, Picasso, Edgar Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Egon Schiele, who served time in jail and had several works destroyed by the authorities for offending turn-of-the-century Austrian mores with his depiction of nude young girls. Jean-Honoré Fragonard ( April 5, 1732 &ndash August 22, 1806) was a French painter and Printmaker whose late Rococo For the French Admiral see Admiral Courbet (1828-1885 Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( 10 June 1819 &ndash Jean-François Millet ( October 4, 1814 &ndash January 20, 1875) was a French painter and one of the founders of the Barbizon Balthasar Kłossowski de Rola ( February 29, 1908 in Paris &ndash February 18, 2001 in Rossinière, Switzerland Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso (October 25 1881 &ndash April 8 1973 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (ɑ̃ʁi dø tuluz loˈtʁɛk (24 November 1864 &ndash 9 September 1901 was a French painter, printmaker, draftsman Egon Schiele (12 June 1890 &ndash 31 October 1918 (ˈʃiːlə approximately SHEE-luh was an Austrian painter, a protégé of Gustav Klimt, and a

Modern

Today, erotic artists thrive, although, in some circles, much of the genre is still not as accepted as the more standard genres of art such as portraiture and landscape. During the last few centuries, society has broadened its view of what can be considered as art and several new styles developed during the 1800s such as Impressionism and Realism. Impressionism was a 19th-century Art movement that began as a loose association of Paris -based Artists exhibiting their art publicly in the 1860s Realism is a visual art style that depicts the actuality of what the eyes can see This has given today's artists a broader, almost infinite, spectrum with which to work.

Legal standards

Erotic photography. Erotic photography is a style of Art photography of an Erotic, sexually suggestive and even sexually provocative nature

Whether or not an instance of erotic art is obscene depends on the standards of the community in which it is displayed. Obscenity (in Latin obscenus, meaning "foul repulsive detestable" is a term that is most often used in a legal context to

In the United States, the 1973 ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States in Miller v. California established a three-tiered test to determine what was obscene - and thus not protected, versus what was merely erotic and thus protected by the First Amendment. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. Miller v California, was an important United States Supreme Court case involving what constitutes unprotected Obscenity for First Amendment The Miller test is the United States Supreme Court 's test for determining whether speech or expression can be labeled Obscene, in which case it is not protected

Delivering the opinion of the court, Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote,

The basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be: (a) whether 'the average person, applying contemporary community standards' would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. Warren Earl Burger ( September 17 1907 – June 25 1995) was Chief Justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986 ^[6]

As this is still, almost by necessity, much more vague than other judicial tests within U. S. jurisprudence, it has not reduced the conflicts that often result, especially from the ambiguities concerning what the "contemporary community standards" are. Similar difficulties in distinguishing between erotica and obscenity have been found in almost every legal system in the world.

The Association of Erotic Artists

The Association of Erotic Artists is a campaigning body for artists, photographers, film-makers, writers, sculptors and models working within the erotic arts.

It also exists in part to counter calls for increased censorship from bodies such as Christian Voice (UK) and mediawatch-uk and in so doing act as a champion for free speech. There is an unconnected organisation called Christian Voice in the USA. mediawatch-uk, formerly known as the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (NVALA is a special interest Pressure group in the United Kingdom, which

A 2007 press release on the Association website states

"With threats from censorship and intolerance towards depictions of sexuality on the increase, from Governmental and religious bodies, it is important that artists working within the erotic genre are represented and given a voice to allow for a balanced perspective within any media debate"

See also

• Fetish art
• Erotica
• Sexual arousal
• History of erotic photography
• History of erotic depictions
• Lesbianism in erotica
• Nudity in art
• Sex in advertising
• Sex in film

References

External links

• "Erotica in Art," appendix to the History of Art
• The Association of Erotic Artists