In 1524 Raimondi, an engraver working with Raphael’s circle of sexual libertarians, printed I Modi – The Positions. These pornographic illustrations gave erotic art to the masses The Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester is exhibiting the works of Marcantonio Raimondi (c.1480–1534), a printmaker who collaborated closely with the great Renaissance artist Raphael. The reproductions of Raphael’s paintings that Raimondi undertook helped spread artistic knowledge across Europe. It sounds respectable, even staid. Yet there’s another side to this craftsman that might make you prick up your ears. He helped invent pornography. Raphael, who employed Raimondi, was at the centre of a circle of sexual libertarians in Renaissance Rome. They hung out at the villa of Agostino Chigi, banker to the Vatican, who held wild parties in his garden by the Tiber and owned erotic art including a lewd statue of the horny greek god Pan. Chigi was a libertarian – he apparently only married his mistress Francesca Ordeaschi to legitimise their four children after they’d lived together for years, and he also had an affair with the famous courtesan Imperia Cognati. The mood at his villa was hedonistic. One regular guest was the writer Pietro Aretino, who wrote of the erotic art in the villa: “Why shouldn’t the eye see what delights it most?” Continue reading...
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