16th Century Pornography
The Beginning of a Sexual Revolution
Giulio Romano
Modern pornography began in Rome with the print culture of the Italian Renaissance. In the early 16th century and artist by the name of, Guilio Ramano, created a series of sexual masterpieces before leaving the city of Vienna. Without others ever laying eyes on his new paintings, he decides to give them to a close friend by the name of, Marcantonio Raimondi. From there, Raimondi published the series of 16 sexual paintings in a book titled, I Modi (the positions). I Modi was the first of its kind to show two or more people having sexual intercourse and the book spread fast and became popular.
Marcantonio Raimondi
Marcantonio received 16 sexual images from Guilio before he left for Vienna and edited (made engravings) them to publish into I Modi. Although Giulio Ramano was the brains behind the whole success of pornography, but Marcantonio was the one who decided that the sexual and arousing photos should be seen by other people so they can learn the many different positions and aspects of sex. Many people enjoyed the book and it became extremely popular there after. Unfortunately, the Vatican thought the book was too obscene and graphic, so they imprisoned Raimondi because of it. Even though Giulio Ramano was the original artist of I Modi, he was thought to never get in trouble because of his ties to the Vatican and because his sexual paintings were not meant for circulation when Marcantonio's engravings were. Below is one of the engravings that is in the book I Modi.
Pietro Aretino
Arentino was best known for his two popular pornographic masterpieces titled, Sonetti Iussuriosi (1527) and Regionamenti (1534-36). The first painting Sonetti Iissuriosi is an image of a couple in bed participating in sexual intercourse. You cannot see the females' breast or vagina or the males penis making this piece not displeasing to look at. This painting symbolizes sex really well without showing all the details. The Sonetti Iussuriosi was combination of sexual poetry and Ramano's graphic engravings of I Modi. The second painting, Regionamenti, was and extension on the piece Sonetti Iussuriosi and contained images of a prostitute, which became the prototype for the 17th century. The painting of Peitro Aretino's Sonetti Iussuriosi is shown below.