Among the oldest surviving examples of erotic depictions are
Paleolithic cave paintings and carvings, but many cultures have created erotic art. Artifacts have been discovered from ancient Mesopotamia depicting explicit heterosexual sex. Glyptic art from the
Sumerian
Early Dynastic Period frequently shows scenes of frontal sex in the
missionary position. and a "Symposium scene with youths.". but rudimentary sketches of heterosexual intercourse have been found on pottery fragments and in graffiti. the last two-thirds of which consist of a series of twelve
vignettes showing men and women in various
sexual positions. and do not conform to Egyptian standards of
physical attractiveness. There is an entire gallery devoted to pre-Columbian erotic ceramics (
Moche culture) in
Lima at the
Larco Museum. Edward Perry Warren adapted a love for Greek Art during college and collected Greek erotic art pieces that often represented gay sexual relationships, such as the
Warren Cup, a Greco-Roman drinking cup which features scenes of anal sex between males. Many of Warren's eclectic pieces collected over the years are in the Boston Museum of Fine Art. Caliph
Al-Walid II, who ruled the
Umayyad Caliphate in the 8th century, was a great patron of erotic art. Among the depictions of the
Qusayr Amra, which were built by him, is the abundance of naked females and love scenes. There is a long tradition of erotic art in Eastern cultures. In Japan, for example,
shunga appeared in the 13th century and continued to grow in popularity until the late 19th century when photography was invented. In Japan during the Edo period (1600–1869), Shunga, translated to "spring pictures", was a series of sexually explicit paintings created with ink or woodblock works that became printed onto paper scrolls as an introduction to sexual education. Shunga, embraced by individuals as part of the Shinto religion, focused on liberating the innate sexual beings that are within all humans, including women and homosexual sexuality. Couples engaging in sexual acts were shown laughing and enjoying the sexual encounter with their partner; this focused on the positivity of sex. Around 1700, shunga was met with opposition and banned in Japan, but the circulation of this prominent Erotic Art continued. Shunga could be found in local libraries and homes of many Japanese citizens. Similarly, the erotic art of
China (known as
Chungongtu) reached its popular peak during the latter part of the
Ming dynasty. In India, the famous
Kama Sutra is an ancient sex manual that is still popularly read throughout the world. In Europe, starting with the
Renaissance, there was a tradition of producing
erotica for the amusement of the aristocracy.
I Modi was an erotic book with engravings of sexual scenes by
Marcantonio Raimondi that were based on designs by
Giulio Romano.
I Modi was thought to be created in around 1524 to 1527. In 1601,
Caravaggio painted the
Amor Vincit Omnia for the collection of the Marquis Vincenzo Giustiniani. An erotic cabinet, ordered by
Catherine the Great, seems to have been adjacent to her suite of rooms in the
Gatchina Palace. The furniture was eccentric, with tables that had large penises for legs. Penises and vaginas were carved on the furniture and the walls were covered in erotic art. The rooms and the furniture were seen in 1941 by two Wehrmacht-officers but they seem to have vanished since then. A documentary by Peter Woditsch suggests that the cabinet was in the
Peterhof Palace and not in Gatchina. The tradition was continued by other, more modern painters, such as
Fragonard,
Courbet,
Millet,
Balthus,
Picasso,
Edgar Degas,
Toulouse-Lautrec and
Egon Schiele. Schiele served time in jail and had several works destroyed by the authorities for offending contemporary mores with his depictions of nude girls. By the 20th century, photography became the most common medium for erotic art. Publishers like
Taschen mass-produced erotic illustrations and
erotic photography. == 20th century onwards ==