Secret Cabinet ( Gabinetto Segreto ) in the Archeological Museum of Naples is the world's oldest museum of erotic art . It presents mainly finds from Pompeii and Herculaneum [1] .
Excavations in Pompeii, thundering all over Europe, became the largest archaeological project of the Enlightenment and revived in artistic circles an interest in classicism in art. The dry rationality of the aesthetics of classicism did not tally with many Pompeian finds, especially those made in the city lupanarium . Among the "inconvenient" items for exhibiting were murals and inscriptions of the priapei , sculptural scenes of sodomy and bestiality , and home utensils of a phallic form.
Scientists were wondering about how to deal with Pompeian " pornography " and this issue was resolved in 1819 by King Francesco I , who visited the excavation sites accompanied by his wife and daughter. The monarch was so outraged by what he saw that he demanded to take all the "seditious" objects to the capital and lock them in the Secret Office. In 1849, the door to the office was bricked up, then access to it was still open to "persons of mature age and impeccable reputation."
In Pompeii themselves, the frescoes, which were not subject to dismantling, but insulted public morality , were covered with curtains that were allowed to be lifted only for payment for males. This practice existed in the 1960s. In the late 1960s. an attempt was made to “liberalize” the exhibition regime and turn the Secret Cabinet into a public museum , but it was stopped by the conservatives. The office was opened to the public only for a short time.
The secret office as one of the last manifestations of censorship was perceived ambiguously, and its content caused many rumors. In 2000, it was finally open to public attendance by adults. Adolescents require written permission from parents. In 2005, the meeting of the Secret Cabinet was finally transferred to the Directorate of the National Archaeological Museum.
Notes
- ↑ Similar "secret rooms" are known in other European museums, for example, in the British Museum .
Literature
- Michael Grant and Antonia Mulas, Eros in Pompeii: The Erotic Art Collection of the Museum of Naples . New York: Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 1997 (translated from the original 1975 Italian edition).
- Walter Kendrick, The Secret Museum: Pornography in Modern Culture (Berkley: University of California Press, 1996)
- "Colonel Fanin" (Stanislas Marie César Famin), On-line translation of Musée royal de Naples; peintures, bronzes et statues érotiques du cabinet secret, avec leur explication , 1836. JB Hare, 2003.
- Laurentino García y García, Luciana Jacobelli, Louis Barré, Museo Segreto. With a Facsimile edition of Herculanum et Pompéi. Recueil général des peintures, bronzes, mosaïques ... (1877) (2001) Pompeii: Marius Edizioni On-line Bryn Mawr Classical Review