Dec 192013
 

Marcantonio_Raimondi_i_modiParis and Oenone, Marcantonio Raimondi

Just a reminder that art doesn’t have to be proper (have I mentioned this before? moi?). The i Modi is a series of Renaissance engravings of erotic mythological encounters, wildly energetic and wonderfully sumptuous, very naughty indeed. The image above is Posture One (Paris and Oenone) from the original set by Marcantonio Raimondi. The images below are from an 18th century version by Agostino Carracci. Click on the links to see multiple postures and versions. Clarissa Hurley sent me the site; she wrote:

…the 16th century engravings, i Modi (The Ways or The Postures), by Marcantonio Raimondi, based on drawings by Giulio Romano. It’s sort of of an Italian renaissance Kama Sutra. Later the salacious poet-satirist Pietro Aretino composed naughty sonnets to go with each image. They are a fairly well-known series for those of us who toil at the lunatic fringes of Italian Ren & Baroque studies, but I assume are less known to normal humans.

This site is pretty good: Eroti- Cart: The History of Erotic Art, and there is a recent print edition by art historian Lynn Lawner, I Modi: The Sixteen Pleasures — An Erotic Album of the Italian Renaissance.

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b154772f076fa0d766935d8827f3c2dc.image.439x550.Pandora__Click_Image_to_ClosePandora, Agostino Carracci

2317b91a7727a829c1af5e36f75e376a.image.455x550.Posture_05_(Polyenos_and_Chriseis)__Click_Image_to_ClosePolyenos and Chriseis, Agostino Carracci

 

 

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