A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern.

  • Iwan Bloch
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of flagellation. According to Pisanus Fraxi there are thirty-seven such drawings by Sala. The renascence of puritanism during the Victorian era, which made itself felt in all fields of human activity, also produced a violent reaction against the coarse realism of | English art. Nudity became taboo, and all bodily contact be- tween the sexes was regarded as indecent. English artists were | severely restricted in the representation of the nude. Hogarth ! dared to represent the lover in ' Marriage a la Mode' escaping half naked through the window. As late as 1860 Etty, I Eastlake and Hilton were able to roam freely in the world of I Titian and Rubens. But after that 6 fig-leaf morals ' became the vogue, and even Watts, the great master, was obliged to explain in writing why he could not represent his Psyche and the young girl of the picture of Mammon otherwise than in the nude. The last classicists—Poynter, Tadema and Crane —continued to paint women in the nude, but their figures were completely devoid of everything even remotely carnal, and were mere marble statues. In addition, the most6 shock- ing ' part of their anatomy was covered over. Apart from that, the nude was only represented in pictures of babies stepping into their bath, or if the subject was a woman, her nudity had to be motivated by a religious touch. In one picture by Calderon a young nude girl is kneeling before a crucifix, swearing to renounce the vanities of the world and to follow 6 naked her naked Lord '. One of the priests witnessing the scene is covering his eyes with his hand, lest he should see the graceful body of the girl! The movement against the nude in art was far stronger in England than anywhere else. The leaders of the movement were 4Mrs. Grundy' and the old painter Horsley. In the 'eighties a violent propaganda campaign was carried on, denouncing the representation of the naked human body as indecent and immoral, thus indirectly accusing the Creator [655]