AFP, published on Wednesday, May 04, 2022 at 1:05 p.m.
« Cover this breast that I cannot see »: Tartuffe’s famous injunction to Dorine would have left the Pompeians unmoved, whose daily life was imbued with uninhibited sensuality.
From bare statues adorning their gardens to erotic paintings brightening the walls of their rooms, the inhabitants of the city buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in the year 79 lived in a setting that did not fail to arouse amazement and curiosity among the archaeologists and visitors to this site unearthed in the 18th century near Naples.
It is this key to understanding that the director of the Pompeii site, the German Gabriel Zuchtriegel, has chosen for an exhibition called « Art and sensuality in the residences of Pompeii », which brings together until January 2023 some 70 works from the reserves of Pompeii and from all kinds of places: private homes, thermal baths, public spaces, taverns…
« Pompeii, since the first excavations, appears as a city where sensuality and eroticism are omnipresent », he explains to AFP in a suit and tie in front of the statues with bare torsos of proud centaurs, these mythical creatures mi -man half-horse.
« From the start, this is a source of embarrassment and bewilderment, but also of curiosity », he underlines, recalling that at the time the King of Naples, who was financing the excavations, had decided « to put under lock and key in a secret cabinet the most obscene objects, as they said at the time ».
This secret cabinet still exists today in the Archaeological Museum of Naples.
Upon entering the exhibition, presented in the « Great Gymnasium » of Pompeii, the visitor finds himself face to face with the impressive erect penis of a statue of the god Priapus, which paradoxically had no erotic connotation. for the Romans because it actually symbolized fertility and prosperity.
At that time, it was traditionally placed in the atrium, the entrance to Roman houses.
– Guide for children –
For this exhibition, « he welcomes visitors, as if to say + this is not eros +, even if in the modern imagination, this meaning is attributed to him », wishes to specify Tiziana Rocco, from the Pompeii exhibition office. .
Evidenced by the embarrassed reactions or the smiles of some tourists facing this phallus in glory.
This unvarnished nudity does not fail to make people react, like this American tourist from Seattle who confides to AFP: « I think that modern American culture is a little too prudish and uncomfortable with the human body ».
« It’s nice to see that the ancient culture was more open and willing to show and glorify the human body, » adds this forty-something in shorts and sunglasses before lingering in front of the paintings that adorned the walls of a » cubiculum », the Roman equivalent of our bedroom.
Against a black background stand out frames representing various scenes, including a man and a woman in the midst of lovemaking: perhaps a reference to one of the works of the abundant erotic literature that flourished at that time?
Further on, a series of oil lamps reveal their naughty decorations to visitors.
Children are not forgotten because « families and children make up a large part of our audience », recalls Gabriel Zuchtriegel, who has developed a nice illustrated guide intended to accompany them on their visit.
« The theme may seem difficult, but it is omnipresent in Pompeii, so it must be explained to children in one way or another, » he believes.
This guide, accompanied by beautiful color illustrations, follows in the footsteps of a centaur in search of a centaur. During his journey, he meets, among others, Narcissus (a hunter of great beauty who fell in love with his own image), Dionysus (god of the vine, wine and its excesses) and Hermaphrodite (fruit of the loves of the gods Hermes and Aphrodite endowed with male and female sexual organs).
« A fun way to meet the different figures of Greek myths present in Pompeii », sums up Gabriel Zuchtriegel.
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