A roman amethyst intaglio. Warship. 1st century A.D.
A Trireme sailing left, the oars lowered, billowing sail by the wind, the waves finely depicted. The iconography refers to early roman coinage as the depictions of Pompey naval victories on silver denarii.
Detail of an ancient Roman statue of Aphrodite (Venus), dated to the 1st century CE. Marble. A copy of an original Greek statue that would have dated to c. 430-420 BCE. Source: Sotheby’s.
Ancient Roman marble head of a youth, dated to the 1st century CE. The head is a Roman copy of an original Greek bronze of Polykleitos, which would have dated to the 5th century BCE. Part of the Belfer Collection situated in New York. Photo taken by Elie Posner. Source: Observer.
Fragments of the face of Caligula. Ancient Roman sculpture, dated to c. 38 CE during his reign. Currently located in the Vatican Museums. Source: Ancientrome.ru.
Today’s piece of erotic art history is a spintrae coin (”spintria” when plural) which comes to us from the 1st century CE Rome. The purpose of these coins are still debated. The popular press has most frequently popularized them as “brothel tokens” (1,2), however, given that there are non-erotic versions of the same coins with the Roman numerals I-XVI (1-16) on them, the most likely explanation is that they are game pieces (2) thereby making them the equivalent to a “dirty deck” of cards.
In this scene, a fully nude man approaches his equally nude female partner from behind on an opulent bed as she turns to face him. The man is either already penetrating or is moments from penetrating his partner as she lays on her stomach and rests her weight on one arm as she arches her back to turn to face her partner.
Today’s piece of erotic art history is a fresco from Pompeii dated between 50-79 CE. This character is frequently mis-identified as Priapus, a god commonly depicted with an giant undying raging erection, but this is actually the messenger god, Mercury (previously known as Hermes to the Greeks) as is denoted by several key identifying attributes in this picture including the wings on his feet, his purse, and his caduceus (1) (a signifying staff with two entwining snakes and a pair of wings at the top typically carried in Mercury / Hermes’ left hand (2)).
Though Priapus is well known for his phallic representations, Mercury / Hermes had a strong phallic association, as well, as is depicted in statues known as herma*. (3) Mercury / Hermes was the god of boundaries and herma were tall statues with flat rectanglular bases with a bust of Hermes at the top and male genitals carves into the otherwise featureless base at the appropriate height which marked borders in lieu of fences. In this scene, wearing only a loin cloth, Mercury walks at an ambitious pace with wings on his feet, his caduceus in his left hand, his pouch in his right hand, and is preceded by his large and improbably shaped erection which is both longer and larger than his arms.
* NOTE - There will be examples of herma uploaded into the database in the future (and may already be present if you are reading this article past its time of publication) which can be found using the #herma hashtag, found below.
