Napoli, Italy | Unique Collections
Roman sexuality was a big problem for the 19th century archaeologists and curators responsible for excavating and preserving the remains of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Romans in general, and citizens of Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum in particular, had a robust appreciation for the erotic in both art and everyday objects. The enormously endowed god Priapus was a common household motif for good-luck, recreated in everything from frescoes to penis-shaped wind chimes to perky oil lamps. Stories from mythology painted on walls were full of sexual encounters, secret trysts, and naughty satyrs. All of this was widely and commonly accepted on a level even modern society would have trouble accepting, let alone Victorians.
The looting of Pompeii began in the late 1700’s, under the direction of Charles of Bourbon (better known as Charles III of Spain), who was after fashionable antiquities for his private collections. When Napoleon’s brother rolled into town in 1806 the French regime drew up the first organized plans to excavate the city in entirety which continued when control of Naples reverted to the Bourbons under Ferdinand I.
As was common for excavations of the period, frescoes were stripped from the walls and small decorative objects, furniture, and statues were removed for safe storage, study, and display elsewhere. In this case they were relocated to the National Museum (Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli).
In 1816 a limited edition French guide to the collection – with illustrations of course – began making rounds. Confiscated and largely destroyed by French authorities, it eventually became a highly sought after collector’s item.
When Ferdinand’s son, Francis I, visited with his wife and young daughter in 1819, he was shocked by the explicit imagery and ordered all items of a sexual nature be removed from view and locked in a secret cabinet, where access could be restricted to scholars (and male visitors willing to bribe the staff).
In Pompeii itself, metal shutters were installed and locked over erotic paintings, accessible to tourists for an extra fee – men only, of course.
All of this fervor only served to make the collection more famous, and it became a right of passage of sorts for European gentlemen to view the secret collection on their Grand Tours.
Amongst dozens of stone penises, phallic wind chimes, and naugthy mosiacs, one item became the most famous: The Goat. This piece de resistance was a detailed carving of a satyr having intercourse with a female goat, her cloven feet pressed up against his chest as she gazes back at him at him with some fondness.
In 1849, the collection was bricked off and remained famously off limits to women, youngsters, and the general public with the exception of brief periods of liberal minded policy under Garibaldi, and briefly again in the in the 1960’s.
It was finally opened to the public in 2000 and moved into a separate gallery in 2005.
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