Erotic Fantasy. Hans-Jürgen Döpp
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Название: Erotic Fantasy
Автор: Hans-Jürgen Döpp
Издательство: Parkstone International Publishing
Жанр: Иностранные языки
Серия: Temporis
isbn: 978-1-78310-751-3, 978-1-78042-976-2
isbn:
25. Images of Spring, coloured shunga, 18th century. Silk on card.
Thus the phallus quite naturally became a god to whom temples, or private altars at home, were dedicated. It was even invoked in prayer on some evenings in the pleasure districts during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Even today one can still come across ancient phallic steles on the edges of fields which have been placed there as symbols of fertility. Festivals in honour of the phallus were a regular event and were the occasion for exuberant processions. An account dating from the end of the nineteenth century describes one of these processions in Tokyo: “A phallus several metres high, all covered in gleaming varnish, was placed on a sort of portable casket and carried by a group of young men, who were shouting or laughing at the tops of their voices. They zig-zagged along the streets and made sudden, unexpected charges in all directions. Real Baccanalian rites!” Thus the cult of the phallus was the backbone of the Shinto religion. In the temples, wooden, porcelain, stone or metal phallic figures were sold as good-luck charms. Japan never suppressed sensuality as such; if there were laws and limitations, they were always socially based but never religious. To seek physical pleasure was considered a natural desire, even if it consisted of unusual practices. Thus, sodomy figured among the normal pleasures of the body. The word “sin”, it seems, was never uttered. Even when we are shown “natural love” in its many varied forms in the woodcarvings, they always involve massive priapic fantasies.
Almost all masters of woodcarving produced erotic images, sometimes even in such precious materials as gold, silver or mother-of-pearl. And yet the shunga studios were for the most part clandestine. Artists did not sign their work, or else used a pseudonym. The number of copies made was always limited and most often sold on the black market.
26. Images of Spring, coloured shunga, 18th century. Silk on card.
Purity of line became a rule that could not be broken for woodcarving; the artist had to carve out the lines in the wood with extreme care. Parallel perspective was mainly dominant: lines that were parallel in nature were also parallel in the wood. Central perspective, which was a European invention, was only introduced in the nineteenth century. Likewise, the Japanese were not familiar with the effects of shadow and light which are so much a part of European art. The initial technique was to print onto paper with one sole block and then to colour the picture by hand which considerably restricted the numbers which could be produced because of the time involved. For this reason, they started using several blocks in the eighteenth century. Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1848) is the last great figure of the Ukiyo-e. After him, woodcarving began to decline, giving way to vulgar copies produced in large numbers and designed to cater to the tastes of the masses. By the second quarter of the nineteenth century, it had, to all intents and purposes, become a popular art. For a long time, Europe ignored Ukiyo-e on the grounds that its content went beyond the boundaries of good taste. It was not until the universal exhibitions in Paris of 1867, 1878 and 1889 that a western audience had the opportunity to rediscover an art form that had hitherto been despised. After that, none would dare deny the major influence of Japanese woodcarving on the entire Impressionist movement.
The English artist Aubrey Beardsley probably possessed the finest collection of Ukiyo-e and shunga. His work, which is so characteristic of the late nineteenth century, is a perfect illustration of the influence of Japanese woodcarving on western art.
27. Images of Spring, coloured shunga, 18th century. Silk on card.
Toulouse-Lautrec also possessed a remarkable collection, a few photographs of which remain. These prints, with their images of cruel and violent ghosts, seem to have particularly affected him, especially the scenes where women are embraced by animals, monkeys, foxes, badgers or vampires. By contrast, in Japan throughout the nineteenth century these prints were hidden and forbidden. As the land of the rising sun became more industrialised, it also became more open to western influences and the Ukiyo-e disappeared into people’s desk drawers. In effect, from the moment when the Meiji emperors seized power in 1868, Japan started flirting with the idea of assimilating into Europe. For this reason, any over-obvious signs of fertility cults or their symbols, especially images of the phallus, were suppressed as they were considered unworthy of a modern nation. The American occupation after the Second World War dealt the final blow to Shintoism. Today, most of the classical shungas which are offered for sale in the West are bought by Japanese collectors who are returning them to their home country in this way.
However, it was not until a massive exhibition of Japanese woodcarvings took place in 1973 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, that the majority of art lovers were given the opportunity of re-learning how to appreciate the true value of these erotic works.
Perhaps today we need to look at these works with new eyes, forgetting that over almost 150 years they served as the languorous representations of our desire for a simple sexuality that rises above all notion of “sin”.
28. Images of Spring, coloured shunga, 18th century. Silk on card.
29. Images of Spring, coloured shunga, 18th century. Silk on card.
In Praise of the Backside
30. Félicien Rops, circa 1890.
Our Arses Shall Be Symbols of Peace
Behind-thoughts[30] on the realm of the moons of flesh
The arse is the proletariat of body parts. It is condemned to namelessness; we search the dictionaries in vain for suitable expressions. At most, the common or vulgar expression serves as a term of abuse. The gesture of showing the bare behind is interpreted as obscene and shocking. Sometimes it is the despised location where punishment is administered. Its presence is characterised by passivity. The work ethic internalised in bourgeois society places passivity, indolence and inactivity under a taboo from the aesthetic point of view as well. Thus the posterior has become an obscene part of the body, especially when its indolence is emphasised by the growth of adipose tissue.[31] The rear-end represents worthlessness within the framework of the body; it is held to be the most soulless part of the body and thus has every reason to groan sometimes, deeply and wordlessly.
Idealistic aesthetic theory, with its reservations about anything that “resembles bestial ugliness” (Rosenkranz), banished the bottom from the repertoire of beautiful objects worthy of representation. It is a physical representation of the opposition between spirit and matter. Where the spirit strives upward, its gravity drags us down. In his work, The Nude, (1958), Kenneth Clark analyses the classical conception of physical beauty. “Nothing which bears any relationship to the human being as a whole was removed or ignored.” So the proportions of the body are discussed, the moulding of the stomach, the rounding of the hips, the play of muscles in the arms and legs, but not the posterior – as if it were not part of the whole.
In every respect the arse is the symbol of everything offensive. This verdict on the anal region is yet more effective and far-reaching since, from infancy onwards, it is linked with the experience of sexual pleasure. Lou Andreas-Salomé[32] argued that the first СКАЧАТЬ
This is a pun in German too. (Translator’s note).
i. e. when it is very fat. (Translator’s note).
12. Feb. 1862–5 Feb 1937; writer of theoretical papers on psychoanalysis.