I Modi
I Modi (The Ways), also known as The Sixteen Pleasures or under the Latin title De omnibus Veneris Schematibus, is a famous erotic book of the Italian Renaissance that had engravings of sexual scenes.
[10][8][6][11] A relief on the outside of an Ancient Roman sarcophagus shows a female Satyr guiding the erect penis of a Herm sculpture towards her vagina and it has been commented that the postures of the female Satyr and the herm have similarities to the figures in image 7 of the woodcut booklet.
Aretino then composed sixteen explicit sonnets to accompany the engravings, and secured Marcantonio's release from prison.
It is thought that this is the first time erotic text and images were combined, though the papacy once more seized all the copies it could find.
[11] Xanto painted a second maiolica dish titled Narcissus (The vain lover of his own image).
[19] This engraving is not present in the woodcut booklet[1] and does not correspond to any of the fragments thought to be by Agostino Veneziano that are in the British Museum.
A second sepia drawing by Johan Tobias Sergel has some similarities to this image in the National Library of Spain.
"The French Arétin by a member of the Academy of Ladies" - François-Félix Nogaret, Francois-Rolland Elluin, Antoine Borel - (1787) In 1787 a book of sonnets and engravings of sexual scenes was published under the title "L'Aretin François, by a member of the Academy of Ladies".
[21][22] The sonnets were written by François-Félix Nogaret[21] and the engravings were created by Francois-Rolland Elluin based on drawings by Antoine Borel.
...The Poet only applied himself to rendering the various subjects of the Designer..."[23] These same sonnets by François-Félix Nogaret were published again in a book in 1869 under the same title.
[24] In a foreword to the book published in 1869 it is commented that "L'Arétin français, followed by Les Epices de Vénus, first appeared in 1787, then in 1788, then in 1803, 1829, 1830 and 1869".
One image is similar to an engraving in the National Library of Spain showing sex between two people who are seated.
One theory is that these images were based on the erotic poses in The Loves of the Gods which was created at the start of the 17th century in Antwerp by Pieter de Jode I with the use of burin.
[36] Several factors were used to cloak these engravings from Augustine Carracci's The Aretin or Collection of Erotic Postures in classical scholarly respectability: Augustine Carracci's The Aretin or Collection of Erotic Postures has various points of deviation from classical literature, erotica, mythology and art which suggest its classical learning is lightly worn, and make clear its actual modern setting: The images in the table below are the engravings from Augustine Carracci's The Aretin or Collection of Erotic Postures.
[30] These engravings have inspired the creation of erotic art from other artists including Paul Avril.
[28][27] Another idea that has been speculated is that they show "...independant permutations and variations on sexual motifs perhaps from an antique source, perhaps invented in Raphael's studio.
"[28] Further that "...these drawings while fascinatingly similar to the Modi, differ even more significantly from anything in the visual remains of those prints, as well as from each other in composition and perhaps graphic style.
"[28] It was further commented that these two drawings "...allow the Modi to be understood as emerging from a collective enterprise, rather than as unique orignary models.
[55] One of these frescos titled the Allegory of April shows an erotic scene in the lower left hand corner.
The frescos were created by Francesco del Cossa, Ercole de’ Roberti[55] and Gherardo di Andrea Fiorini[54][55] in around 1469.
[54] In around 1470 the oil painting Love spell[56] was created that shows a nude female inside a room dropping water into a chest that contains a large heart.
[56] The Restoration closet drama Farce of Sodom is set in "an antechamber hung with Aretine's postures".
In the 1989 novel The Sixteen Pleasures by Robert Hellenga, a copy of the book is discovered in a convent following the 1966 flood of the Arno.
Talvacchia, Bette "Taking Positions: On the Erotic in Renaissance Culture" Princeton University Press 1999 Page: 250 ISBN 978-0691026329 Media related to I modi at Wikimedia Commons
