The Birth of Modern Pornography: Contextualizing the Production and Destruction of I Modi
Desjardin, Marie-Claire Lynette
Desjardin, Marie-Claire Lynette
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Abstract
Clementine Rome was a dualistic period both of libertine artistic abundance and of reformative attitudes in response to Northern criticism of the Papacy. The election of a second Medici pope had artists excited at the possibility of increased papal benefices after the conservative of regime of Adrian VI. The amicable atmosphere of production aided by the workshop environment, and convivial relationship between artists, patrons, and their elite circle, created a false sense of liberty of expression. It was in this precarious climate that the project of I Modi was conceptualized. Giulio Romano, one of the pope’s favorites, would provide a set of pornographic drawings to engraver Marcantonio Raimondi. The translation of the images into print, a newly burgeoning genre, allowed the perfect opportunity to initiate censorship laws concerning the decorum of production and consumption of art. While models of pornography exist both preceding I Modi and after their destruction, the project was annihilated from existence save for secondary editions of dubious quality and provenance. What were the motivating factors in the eradication of the images? The following presents a socio-historic examination of the context of production, the extant remains, and motivation for the conspicuous eradication of I Modi.
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Thesis (B.A. in Art History)--John Cabot University, Spring 2017.
Date
2017
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Keywords
Renaissance arts, Erotica
Citation
Desjardin, Marie-Claire Lynette. "The Birth of Modern Pornography: Contextualizing the Production and Destruction of I Modi". BA Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2017.