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I Modi

I Modi ("The Ways" or "The Positions") is a series of sixteen explicit erotic engravings created around 1524 by the Italian engraver Marcantonio Raimondi (c. 1480–c. 1534), based on drawings by the artist Giulio Romano (c. 1499–1546).^[1]^[2] The prints depict copulating couples in various sexual positions, often incorporating mythological figures such as satyrs and nymphs to provide a veneer of classical justification, marking the first mass-produced visual representations of sexual intercourse in Western printmaking.^[3]^[4] Shortly after publication in Rome, the engravings scandalized authorities, leading Pope Clement VII (r. 1523–1534) to order Raimondi's imprisonment and the destruction of all known copies and printing plates, rendering originals lost and surviving only through later clandestine copies.^[1]^[3] The project originated from Romano's designs, possibly inspired by decorations in the papal apartments or as a satirical response to contemporary artistic norms under Pope Leo X, with Raimondi—known for reproducing Raphael's works—reproducing them via his innovative etching techniques for rapid production.^[1]^[5] Pietro Aretino (1492–1556), a poet and courtier, later composed accompanying Sonetti lussuriosi ("Lustful Sonnets") around 1527 to pair with the images, explicitly describing the acts in vulgar verse and earning him notoriety as an early advocate for artistic freedom amid censorship.^[6]^[2] This textual addition amplified the work's notoriety, as Aretino circulated manuscript versions defiantly after the papal ban, highlighting tensions between Renaissance humanism's embrace of antiquity and the Church's moral oversight.^[1] I Modi exemplifies early modern print culture's disruptive potential, influencing subsequent erotic art while precipitating formalized censorship of reproductive prints, as the Vatican's response underscored fears of uncontrolled dissemination via affordable multiples rather than the imagery's existence in painting or sculpture.^[3]^[7] Despite destruction efforts, woodcut and engraving copies proliferated in Europe by the 1550s, attesting to persistent demand and the limits of ecclesiastical control over vernacular erotica.^[2] The series' legacy lies in pioneering explicit visual narration of sexuality, challenging decorum in high art and foreshadowing debates on obscenity that persist in media regulation.^[5]

Origins and Creation

Giulio Romano's Drawings and Marcantonio Raimondi's Engravings

Giulio Romano, a pupil of Raphael who died in 1520, designed the original sixteen drawings for I Modi in Rome around 1524.^[1] These works depicted couples engaged in various sexual positions without the mythological or allegorical veils common in prior erotic art, marking a direct and explicit approach reflective of Romano's emerging Mannerist style, which deviated from High Renaissance balance toward elongated forms and dynamic compositions.^[8] Romano's drawings, executed shortly after he inherited aspects of Raphael's workshop, showcased his skill in anatomical rendering and pose innovation, drawing on classical influences but prioritizing erotic realism.^[9] Marcantonio Raimondi, renowned for his reproductive engravings of Raphael's designs, translated Romano's drawings into a series of copperplate engravings in 1524.^[1] Leveraging his technical precision in intaglio techniques, Raimondi captured the intricate details and fluid lines of the originals, producing plates capable of high-fidelity multiple impressions for wider dissemination beyond elite patronage.^[10] This collaboration between Romano's inventive draftsmanship and Raimondi's mastery of printmaking represented a pivotal moment in erotic visual culture, enabling the series' initial circulation as prints rather than unique drawings.^[11] Contemporary accounts and surviving fragmentary evidence from related engravings confirm the 1524 timeline and the artists' direct involvement in this unadorned portrayal of human intimacy.^[12]

Pietro Aretino's Accompanying Sonnets

Pietro Aretino, a Renaissance satirist known for his provocative writings, composed sixteen sonnets between 1524 and 1525 to serve as textual commentary on the erotic engravings derived from Giulio Romano's drawings.^[13] ^[14] Titled Sonetti sopra i XVI modi or Sonetti lussuriosi, these verses were created in the vernacular Italian of the period, employing explicit and obscene language to narrate the sexual acts illustrated in each posture.^[15] ^[16] Each sonnet directly corresponded to one of the sixteen images, using coarse diction and hyperbolic mockery to describe the mechanics of copulation, often ridiculing the participants' physical exertions and pleasures in a manner that underscored human carnality over romantic idealization.^[14] Aretino's intent was partly defiant, responding to the papal censorship of Marcantonio Raimondi's engravings by amplifying their transgressive nature through literature, thereby transforming the visual series into a multimedia provocation that challenged ecclesiastical moral authority.^[1] ^[14] The sonnets' circulation in manuscript form among courtiers and patrons, including figures associated with the Gonzaga court, elevated I Modi's infamy by merging artisanal eroticism with literary scandal, prompting further condemnations while establishing Aretino's reputation as a bold exponent of unvarnished humanist expression.^[13] ^[1] This verbal layer emphasized empirical depictions of bodily reality, prioritizing descriptive candor that satirized pretensions of decorum in elite circles.^[15]

Artistic Content and Techniques

Description of the 16 Sexual Postures

The 16 engravings portray nude heterosexual couples in explicit acts of sexual intercourse, featuring direct human figures without mythological attributes or narrative context, emphasizing anatomical accuracy in genitalia and musculature during penetration.^[17] Positions vary from basic supine couplings to elaborate configurations, with couples shown in full-body views that highlight torsion, extension, and contact points for verifiably distinct modi of coitus.^[18] Surviving original fragments, including nine pieces held by the British Museum from seven engravings, preserve elements such as four female heads in left-facing profile, three male naked upper torsos with arms raised or embracing, one female naked torso, and one female leg, all indicative of dynamic intercourse scenes involving reclining or intertwined bodies.^[19] The series systematically catalogs variations: missionary-style with man superior and woman supine (posture 1); woman superior astride recumbent man (a recurrent variant); rear-entry with woman kneeling or bent forward; standing postures with lifted legs or waist support; and acrobatic forms like one partner elevated or suspended for deeper angles.^[20] These depictions prioritize empirical bodily mechanics over idealization, resulting in poses that convey motion through strained limbs and facial contortions suggesting exertion or ecstasy, distinct from the static, veiled erotica of classical precedents.^[1]

Posture Number	Key Configuration
1	Man superior, missionary variant with legs extended.^[17]
2-3	Woman superior, facing or reverse, on supine man.^[20]
4-6	Rear-entry, kneeling or prone woman.
7-10	Standing or semi-standing with leg lifts or embraces.
11-16	Acrobatic, including shoulder-over-leg and suspended positions for varied penetration.^[21]

This catalog exhausts the known originals' scope, with each plate isolating a single posture for instructional clarity, though crude execution in fragments reveals limitations in proportional harmony amid the pursuit of explicit dynamism.^[19]

Influences from Classical Antiquity and Innovations

The poses depicted in I Modi derive from classical erotic traditions, notably ancient Roman spintriae—small bronze tokens featuring explicit sexual positions, likely used as brothel currency around the 1st century CE.^[22] Scholar Bette Talvacchia argues that Giulio Romano modeled the series on these artifacts and other classical paradigms of erotic imagery, adapting motifs from Roman reliefs and frescoes that portrayed intercourse without mythological overlay, such as those in Pompeian brothel scenes emphasizing mechanical variety over symbolic narrative.^[23] This borrowing reflects Renaissance antiquarianism's revival of unvarnished ancient precedents, evident in the anatomical precision and positional diversity echoing artifacts like spintriae specimens preserved in collections such as the British Museum, which document at least 20 distinct acts.^[24] While rooted in antiquity, I Modi innovates by depicting contemporary, relatable figures stripped of divine attributes or contextual lore, diverging from the era's prevalent mythological eroticism—such as Venus and Mars couplings in earlier Renaissance works—and prioritizing empirical observation of human anatomy and motion.^[23] This shift aligns with Renaissance humanism's focus on bodily realism, transforming classical motifs into a secular manual of pleasures that foregrounds lust's immediacy over allegorical elevation, as seen in the engravings' dynamic, unidealized forms devoid of landscape or props.^[24] Such demythologization achieves technical fidelity to observed mechanics but arguably diminishes artistic depth, favoring instructional arousal over the layered symbolism of ancient sources, where eroticism often intertwined with ritual or social commentary; Talvacchia notes this as a deliberate provocation testing Renaissance boundaries between antiquity's legacy and modern candor.^[23] By 1524, this approach marked a causal break, causal in privileging direct causation of pleasure through posture over interpretive myth, influencing subsequent erotica's explicitness despite papal suppression.^[1]

Engraving Techniques and Artistic Merit

Marcantonio Raimondi executed the engravings of I Modi using the burin technique on copper plates, incising fine lines to create precise contours and employing hatching and cross-hatching for tonal shading that conveyed subtle gradations in muscle tension and fabric drapery.^[25] This labor-intensive method demanded significant skill and pressure to push the lozenge-shaped burin through the metal, resulting in clean, varied line widths that enhanced the three-dimensionality of figures.^[25] The approach allowed for the production of numerous impressions from each plate, democratizing access to Giulio Romano's designs beyond elite patronage.^[1] The artistic merit of Raimondi's prints lies in their high fidelity to the source drawings, capturing the inventive vigor and anatomical dynamism intended by Romano, while pioneering the mass dissemination of explicit imagery through reproducible media.^[26] However, close examination reveals weaknesses, including occasional distortions in limb proportions and joint articulations in contorted poses, likely stemming from the haste in translating drawings to plates amid commercial pressures.^[27] These imperfections, evident under scrutiny, contrast with the overall technical refinement that elevated engraving as a vehicle for erotic narrative.^[28] Surviving fragments of early impressions, such as those in the British Museum, display varying degrees of plate wear—manifest in softened lines and accumulated burrs—indicating extensive printing runs and broad circulation in Rome prior to the 1527 destruction of the plates by papal order.^[1] This empirical evidence underscores the engravings' immediate popularity and the technique's durability under repeated use, despite the eventual suppression.^[17]

Original Publication and Censorship

Release and Initial Circulation (1524–1527)

The engravings comprising I Modi were first printed in Rome circa 1524 by Marcantonio Raimondi, utilizing his copper plates to produce multiple impressions of the sixteen postures derived from Giulio Romano's designs. These were bundled with Pietro Aretino's accompanying Sonetti lussuriosi, explicit verses composed around the same period to elucidate each scene, forming a cohesive erotic portfolio without ecclesiastical imprimatur or adherence to papal printing oversight.^[29]^[30] The venture capitalized on engraving's reproducibility, enabling dissemination beyond manuscript limits and appealing to economic incentives from novelty-seeking patrons amid Rome's vibrant but regulated print trade.^[31] Distribution occurred through Raimondi's established networks among Roman artists and publishers, targeting an elite clientele of connoisseurs and nobility who valued such provocative antiquarian-inspired erotica. Copies circulated discreetly to evade emerging moral scrutiny, reaching northern Italian courts including Mantua under Federico Gonzaga II, where Romano had recently arrived and where the work aligned with courtly libertinism.^[32] Anecdotal accounts of fervent demand, reflected in Aretino's promotional letters and the rapidity of institutional backlash, indicate substantial initial uptake among affluent buyers before interventions curtailed production.^[33] This pre-censorship phase, spanning roughly 1524 to 1527, highlighted causal drivers like profit from scarcity and the allure of forbidden classical revivalism, circumventing guild monopolies on reproductive prints.

Papal Condemnation and Destruction of Plates

Pope Clement VII responded to the dissemination of I Modi's engravings by deeming them obscene and detrimental to public morals, ordering the imprisonment of engraver Marcantonio Raimondi around 1524 and the melting down of the copper plates to prevent further reproduction.^[34]^[35] The papal action was motivated by concerns that the explicit sexual postures, despite claims of classical inspiration by artists like Giulio Romano, encouraged vice and undermined ecclesiastical authority over moral conduct in Renaissance society.^[36] Raimondi's brief incarceration highlighted the Church's causal view that widespread access to such images directly fostered societal corruption, contrasting with defenders' arguments for artistic precedent in ancient erotic motifs from sources like Pompeian frescoes or Greek vase paintings. Enforcement was thorough: authorities confiscated and destroyed known impressions alongside the plates, resulting in no complete sets of original engravings surviving intact, with only fragmentary evidence attesting to the work's initial form.^[35] Pietro Aretino, whose accompanying Sonetti lussuriosi amplified the scandal upon their circa 1527 publication, faced repercussions prompting his flight from Rome to Venice that year, where he evaded further papal pursuit under more tolerant Venetian patronage.^[37] This suppression demonstrated the Vatican's capacity to enforce censorship through direct intervention, effectively curtailing access to I Modi for generations and reinforcing clerical control amid rising print culture's challenges to traditional authority. The measures' success in scarcity is evidenced by the reliance on later derivative copies for historical reconstruction, underscoring the edict's role in shaping the work's legacy through enforced rarity rather than outright eradication of interest.

Surviving Copies and Editions

Agostino Veneziano's Replacement Engravings (c. 1530)

Following the papal condemnation and destruction of Marcantonio Raimondi's copperplates in 1527, engraver Agostino Veneziano (c. 1490–c. 1540), active in Rome, produced a replacement series of 16 engravings around 1530 to replicate the original I modi designs by Giulio Romano.^[38] These were based on offset drawings transferred from impressions of Raimondi's prints, allowing Veneziano to reconstruct the compositions amid ongoing demand for the erotic postures despite censorship risks.^[39] The engravings maintained close fidelity to the lost originals, depicting the same 16 sexual positions framed as mythological encounters, though with subtle refinements in line work attributable to Veneziano's style, such as smoother hatching and enhanced anatomical detail in surviving impressions.^[19] Veneziano's set circulated primarily through clandestine networks in northern Italy, where papal authority was weaker, enabling evasion of Roman scrutiny and sustaining the work's dissemination without accompanying sonnets to reduce overt literary provocation.^[38] No complete set survives intact, but fragments attest to the series: the British Museum holds nine mounted fragments from Veneziano's engravings, including partial scenes of copulating figures styled as "Loves of the Gods," confirming their direct derivation from Raimondi's plates after Romano's drawings.^[19] These replacements represent the earliest documented revival effort, bridging the gap left by the 1524–1527 editions and inspiring subsequent pirated versions, though Veneziano's motivations appear driven by commercial opportunity rather than explicit ideological defiance.^[40]

Derivative Copies of Veneziano's Version

Derivative copies of Agostino Veneziano's circa 1530 engravings of I modi proliferated in clandestine European markets during the 1530s, fueled by the destruction of Raimondi's original plates and ongoing demand for the explicit postures. These unsigned reproductions, often executed as woodcuts to enable cheaper and faster production compared to copperplate engraving, facilitated wider underground circulation among private collectors. Woodcut techniques allowed for relief printing on rudimentary presses, bypassing the specialized skills required for intaglio methods, thus lowering barriers to illicit replication.^[8] Unlike Aretino's sonnet-accompanied originals, these derivatives emphasized visual content alone, omitting textual elements to streamline production and reduce scrutiny from censors. Surviving examples include fragmented sets and individual sheets, such as nine mounted engraving fragments of erotic scenes preserved in the British Museum, re-engraved in the manner of Veneziano's directional copies after Raimondi. An anonymous 16th-century engraving in the Albertina Museum replicates a specific posture from Veneziano's series, evidencing direct derivation through mirrored compositions and stylistic fidelity.^[19]^[8] The mechanics of proliferation relied on scarcity-driven innovation, with copyists adapting Veneziano's designs to evade papal bans while preserving the core anatomical and positional details derived from Giulio Romano's prototypes. These adaptations appeared in modest booklets, prioritizing affordability over artistic refinement, and contributed to the sustained, if covert, dissemination of the series' motifs across Italy and beyond.^[8]

17th-Century Reprints and Adaptations

In the 17th century, I Modi persisted in circulation through clandestine reprints, primarily in European centers like France and Italy, where demand among libertine intellectuals sustained underground production amid intensified Counter-Reformation censorship. These editions, often produced in small runs by anonymous printers, integrated with the era's expanding cheap print market, including pamphlets and illicit broadsheets, but records remain fragmentary due to deliberate secrecy and destruction. Adaptations typically bowdlerized explicit elements—such as softening genital details or omitting certain postures—to reduce legal risks, while adding ornamental Baroque frames or allegorical titles to evoke classical precedents and mask erotic intent.^[41] ^[42] Printing innovations, including refined copperplate etching and more efficient wooden screw presses, enabled sharper reproductions from surviving Veneziano-derived plates or new tracings, facilitating riskier dissemination to private collectors and salons. Archival evidence from seized shipments links these to libertine networks, where the work fueled debates on sensual philosophy, though most copies evaded formal documentation. In England, a documented revival occurred when 17th-century fellows of All Souls College, Oxford, surreptitiously used the university press to produce Aretino's Postures—a direct rendering of the sonnets and engravings—before Dean John Fell intervened, confiscating plates and threatening expulsion to curb the scandal.^[17] This incident underscores the work's enduring allure and the tensions between technological accessibility and moral suppression.

Later Interpretations and Reconstructions

Agostino Carracci's The Aretin or Collection of Erotic Postures

Agostino Carracci (1557–1602), operating from his Bologna studio in the late 1580s to 1590s, created a series of 16 engravings that reconstructed the prohibited original I Modi through indirect traces, titling the work L'Aretin d'Augustin Carrache ou Recueil de postures érotiques to reference Pietro Aretino's accompanying sonnets.^[21] These plates drew from offset copies or recollections of Agostino Veneziano's circa 1530 engravings, which themselves replaced the destroyed Raimondi set.^[43] The engravings depict explicit sexual postures integrated with mythological figures, such as gods and heroes with emphasized muscular forms and exaggerated genitalia, aligning with Renaissance anatomical ideals while evoking classical precedents.^[43] Produced amid post-Tridentine artistic constraints favoring religious themes, Carracci's versions incorporated these narrative elements to lend plausibility and artistic elevation to the erotic content.^[44] This Bolognese edition served as the primary source for later reproductions, including Jacques Joseph Coiny's 1798 Paris engravings, which faithfully replicated Carracci's designs in a collection of 16 plates.^[21] Attributions occasionally debate involvement of Camillo Procaccini, but stylistic analysis favors Carracci's direct hand in the drawings or etchings.^[21] Compared to precursors, Carracci's compositions demonstrate heightened technical refinement, with dynamic poses and balanced figural groupings that enhance visual coherence, though this polish arguably tempers the unfiltered immediacy of Raimondi's prototypes.^[43]

Classical Disguises and Modifications in Carracci's Version

In Agostino Carracci's Lascivie series (c. 1590–1595), erotic postures derived from I Modi were reframed through classical mythological narratives, such as couplings involving Venus, Mars, or satyrs and nymphs, to present the works as antiquarian studies rather than unadulterated pornography. This strategy involved integrating elements like flowing drapery loosely draped over limbs and symbolic attributes—thyrsoi for Bacchic figures or quivers for huntresses—to evoke ancient sarcophagi and reliefs, thereby aligning the engravings with the Renaissance scholarly pursuit of reconstructing classical antiquity.^[45] Art historian Bette Talvacchia notes that these additions served as a cultural camouflage, allowing Carracci to exploit the period's fascination with antique forms while deflecting charges of indecency by implying an educational intent rooted in historical reconstruction. In contrast to the original I Modi's stark anatomical focus, Carracci's modifications introduced harmonious proportions and softened contours, idealizing bodies to mirror the contrapposto and musculature of Greco-Roman sculptures, as seen in surviving impressions where explicit unions are partially obscured by strategic folds of fabric or embracing limbs. Such alterations reflected Counter-Reformation sensitivities in late 16th-century Bologna, where Carracci worked under familial and ecclesiastical scrutiny; for instance, penetrative details in postures akin to the originals were tempered by ethereal lighting and atmospheric depth, reducing visceral directness in favor of painterly elegance. Verifiable comparisons with fragments of Marcantonio Raimondi's 1524 engravings reveal Carracci's preference for volumetric modeling over linear precision, emphasizing sensual grace—evident in the fuller hips and attenuated torsos of female figures—while preserving core coital dynamics but embedding them within vignettes of divine or rustic antiquity. This approach not only prolonged the motifs' circulation but also critiqued moral hypocrisy through ironic classical veneers, as the engravings' publication by Donato Rasciotti in Venice around 1597 demonstrates their evasion of outright papal interdiction.^[46]

Differences from Originals and Antique Sources

Agostino Carracci's engravings in The Aretin or Collection of Erotic Postures (c. 1586–1590) systematically altered the compositions of Marcantonio Raimondi's original 1524 engravings after Giulio Romano's designs by embedding the sexual positions within mythological narratives, such as Venus and Mars or Bacchus and Ariadne, to veil explicit content as classical allegory and thereby evade ecclesiastical censorship. Whereas Raimondi's plates isolated nude figures in direct, penetrative acts with minimal background, Carracci introduced draped figures, landscape elements, and symbolic attributes like torches or urns, softening genital visibility and genital contact through strategic cropping or obstruction. This modification reduced the originals' raw anatomical candor, as evidenced by side-by-side comparisons where Carracci's versions exhibit partial clothing on genitals or averted gazes, prioritizing compositional harmony over unadorned erotic mechanics.^[47]^[43] The dynamic, contorted postures of I Modi, conveying vigorous motion through twisted limbs and implied thrust, were rendered more static and balanced in Carracci's adaptations, with figures adopting contrapposto stances reminiscent of antique sculpture to emphasize grace over exertion; for instance, the original's aggressive rear-entry position became a languid embrace in Carracci's mythological framing, diluting the kinetic energy that scholars attribute to Romano's life-study influences. These changes reflect a causal adaptation for survival amid post-Tridentine scrutiny, as Carracci's workshop produced the series clandestinely, contrasting the originals' bold dissemination that prompted papal plate destruction in 1527. Empirical analysis of surviving fragments confirms this dilution, with Carracci's prints measuring approximately 20–30% less explicit in exposure metrics derived from engraving inventories.^[48] Compared to antique sources like Pompeian frescoes or Attic vases, which often isolated copulatory acts amid decorative motifs without overarching plots, Carracci amplified narrative integration—pairing postures with heroic or divine contexts absent in I Modi's purer isolation—thus diverging from Greco-Roman precedents' episodic frankness toward a synthetic classicism that imposed moralizing veneers, such as punitive or celebratory subtexts, to legitimize eroticism as historical reconstruction rather than mere titillation. While both versions echoed antique figural proportions, Carracci's heightened idealization, with elongated limbs and ethereal lighting, departed from the originals' and antiques' earthier proportions, verifiable through proportional studies showing Carracci's figures averaging 5–10% taller relative to hip width. This selective emulation served evidentiary reconstruction but compromised fidelity to antique eroticism's uncontextualized immediacy, as noted in comparative iconographic reviews.^[49]

Broader Renaissance Erotic Art Context

Precursors in Drawings and Sketchbooks (e.g., Raphael's Workshop)

In Raphael's workshop, the practice of drawing from live nude models—both male and female—fostered an environment of sensual and inventive exploration that extended to erotic themes, laying groundwork for later explicit works like I Modi. This approach, emphasized by Raphael to capture natural poses and anatomy, permeated the studio's output, including sketchbooks where motifs of intertwined figures and genital display emerged as precursors to copulatory scenes.^[50]^[51] A prime example is the Fossombrone sketchbook, produced around 1515–1520 by a draughtsman in Raphael's circle, which includes effaced erotic compositions reconstructed through analysis of remaining traces and related works. These three recovered scenes depict explicit sexual intercourse, blending realistic anatomy with grotteschi-style ornamentation derived from antique sources, and reflect shared workshop inventions rather than isolated efforts by any single artist. Attributed to collective experimentation involving pupils like Giulio Romano and associates such as Cesare da Sesto and Giovanni da Udine, the drawings demonstrate permutations of poses—expanding Raphael's sensuous nudes into full erotic narratives—circulating prior to the 1524 engravings.^[51]^[52] While Raphael himself focused on idealized, non-explicit sensuality in figures like those in his Galatea fresco (1512), the workshop's bolder extensions under his influence prefigured I Modi's directness, with motifs possibly drawn from classical artifacts or invented on-site. Later censorship obscured these precursors, but their recovery underscores how Raphael's studio served as a crucible for erotic graphic innovation, transmitted through Romano's designs.^[51]

Contemporary Works like Farnese Gallery Frescoes

The Farnese Gallery frescoes, executed by Annibale Carracci and his workshop between 1597 and 1608 under commission from Cardinal Odoardo Farnese, form a monumental ceiling cycle titled The Loves of the Gods, depicting mythological amorous encounters drawn from Ovid's Metamorphoses and other classical sources.^[53] These works feature lascivious gods and mortals, such as Venus with Anchises and the Rape of Ganymede, rendered in dynamic, three-dimensional poses that evoke sensual tension through illusionistic architecture and foreshortening.^[54] ^[55] In parallel to I Modi's explicit portrayal of sexual postures attributed to mythological figures, the Farnese cycle integrates erotic themes into a narrative celebration of love's triumph, with over 50 figures interacting across framed panels that simulate bronze medallions and easel paintings on a vaulted surface.^[56] While I Modi circulated as suppressed prints emphasizing isolated, acrobatic positions inspired by antiquity, Carracci's frescoes publicly displayed restrained eroticism—intimating rather than depicting intercourse—within Palazzo Farnese's grand interior, blending pagan sensuality with Renaissance humanism.^[53] This public grandeur contrasted I Modi's secrecy, yet both drew on classical precedents like ancient sarcophagi and sculptures for anatomical vigor and thematic libertinism.^[57] Contemporary accounts praised the frescoes' technical mastery in unifying disparate myths under ars vincit omnia ("art conquers all"), but critics, including some church figures, decried their sensual excess as morally indulgent, mirroring the obscenity charges leveled against I Modi decades earlier.^[57] The cycle's 152 square meters of fresco, completed amid Carracci's health decline, thus exemplify how erotic mythology persisted in elite patronage, adapting I Modi-like motifs to architectural spectacle while navigating Counter-Reformation scrutiny.^[55]

Giulio Romano's Other Erotic Contributions

Giulio Romano's decorations for the Palazzo del Te in Mantua, commissioned by Federico II Gonzaga and executed between approximately 1524 and 1534, incorporated subtle yet pervasive erotic elements within mythological fresco cycles, reflecting his interest in the sensual dynamics of the human body akin to the explicit poses in I Modi.^[58] In rooms such as the Sala di Psiche, Romano depicted scenes from the Amor and Psyche myth with nude figures in intimate embraces, including erotic panels over windows that emphasized physical entanglement and desire, blending classical narratives with Mannerist exaggeration of forms.^[59] Similarly, the fresco of Jupiter Seducing Olympias (c. 1526–1528) portrays the god's advance with overt anatomical detail, underscoring Romano's technique of animating divine encounters through dynamic, intertwined anatomies that echoed the bold figural inventions of his earlier drawings.^[9] Beyond frescoes, Romano created standalone erotic drawings during his Mantuan period, such as an untitled sheet dated after 1524 featuring nude figures in suggestive postures, which paralleled the exploratory vigor of I Modi by probing the limits of erotic expression through fluid, exaggerated musculature and intimate compositions.^[60] These works, produced independently of engraving projects, demonstrate Romano's sustained fascination with the erotic potential of the nude, as evidenced in his manipulation of proportions to heighten sensuality—traits Giorgio Vasari noted in Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1550, rev. 1568) when praising Romano's inventive frescoes at Palazzo del Te for their "strange and forced" attitudes that invigorated mythological subjects with lifelike passion.^[61] This consistency across media reveals a causal thread in Romano's practice: his departure from Raphael's balanced idealism toward a more provocative Mannerism, where eroticism served to test artistic license under ducal patronage, informing the unbridled candor of I Modi.^[62]

Reception, Controversies, and Moral Debates

Pope Clement VII condemned I Modi as grossly indecent, ordering the imprisonment of engraver Marcantonio Raimondi in 1527, the destruction of the printing plates, and the burning of all known copies, viewing the explicit engravings as a direct affront to Christian moral standards.^[3] The papal decree emphasized the work's potential to incite lust and fornication by disseminating detailed visual representations of sexual intercourse to a broad audience via affordable prints, unlike confined private drawings or paintings.^[63] This action reflected broader Church concerns that such imagery undermined marital fidelity and ecclesiastical teachings on chastity, portraying the engravings as tools that glorified carnal pleasure over procreative duty within wedlock. Contemporary ecclesiastical critics argued that I Modi exacerbated the perceived moral laxity of the Roman court, where elite consumption of the prints fueled scandals among nobility and clergy, contributing to a culture of dissipation amid the era's political turmoil.^[1] Secular observers, including some humanists wary of unchecked sensuality, echoed these fears, contending that the work's satirical sonnets by Pietro Aretino trivialized sacred antiquity while encouraging vice among the young and impressionable, potentially eroding social hierarchies reliant on restrained conduct.^[64] Though Aretino initially defended the sonnets as artistic liberty, later reflections in his correspondence hinted at unease over the ensuing backlash, which tarnished reputations and intensified calls for restraint in erotic expression. The ban's immediate aftermath saw a sharp decline in openly circulated explicit prints akin to Raimondi's originals, with production shifting underground or to veiled adaptations, suggesting the censorship's efficacy in curbing public moral hazards during a period of heightened papal authority.^[65] This deterrent effect was attributed to the threat of excommunication and severe penalties, which temporarily suppressed similar ventures and reinforced elite caution against materials deemed corrosive to communal virtue.^[32]

Defenses as Artistic Expression vs. Moral Hazard

Pietro Aretino articulated a primary defense of I Modi in correspondence, rejecting what he termed the "furtive attitude and filthy custom" of concealing erotic acts, and questioning the purported harm in visually representing copulation as a natural human endeavor.^[66] This stance positioned the work as an antidote to hypocrisy, aligning with humanist emphases on candid exploration of the body's passions, much as ancient Roman art integrated erotic elements—such as phallic amulets or Priapean verses—to affirm vitality and fertility without moral evasion.^[67] Proponents further justified the engravings' anatomical rigor as advancing artistic mastery of the nude, paralleling the precise contrapposto and muscular dynamics in classical sculptures by artists like Polykleitos, thereby elevating erotic depiction to an intellectual exercise in form and proportion rather than mere titillation.^[68] Opposing views, rooted in traditional moral philosophy, highlighted the inherent risks of such representations to personal discipline, asserting that explicit imagery directly stimulated base appetites, eroding the Stoic ideal of rational mastery over impulses as advocated by figures like Cicero in his De Officiis.^[69] Critics, including Giorgio Vasari, expressed dismay at the work's unbridled indecency, viewing it as a deviation from art's proper role in edifying virtue rather than pandering to vice, with the print medium's reproducibility amplifying the potential for widespread ethical erosion among less disciplined audiences.^[66] This perspective weighed the causal trade-offs unfavorably, contending that any gains in expressive freedom or classical fidelity were overshadowed by the hazard of fostering licentiousness, particularly in a society where visual stimuli could precipitate lapses in self-control akin to those warned against in patristic texts on concupiscence.^[70] The debate encapsulated broader tensions between libertine valorization of unvarnished human candor—as in Aretino's satirical framing of the sonnets—and traditionalist imperatives for restraint, with the former celebrating erotic art's role in demystifying bodily truths and the latter prioritizing communal moral safeguards against individual excess.^[71] Such arguments reflected era-specific reckonings with antiquity's legacy, where imitation promised cultural enrichment but invited scrutiny over whether revived obscenities served progress or peril.^[67]

Modern Scholarly Views on Censorship and Freedom

In recent scholarship, the censorship of I modi is interpreted not merely as an act of authoritarian repression but as a pragmatic response to the causal risks posed by its explicit content in a newly accessible print medium. The series, engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi after Giulio Romano's designs and released around 1524, provoked Pope Clement VII to order its destruction and imprison Raimondi due to fears of inciting uncontrolled sexual arousal and social disorder among a broader audience beyond elite viewers.^[1] This view draws on David Freedberg's analysis of art's power to elicit physiological responses, where I modi's unmediated depictions—stripped of traditional mythological veils—demanded viewer imagination to "complete" fragmented or explicit scenes, heightening erotic potency and potential for moral hazard.^[1] Scholars like Bette Talvacchia argue that the work's novelty as the first mass-produced explicit engraving series amplified these risks, transforming private erotic drawings into public provocations that Giorgio Vasari later cited as a cautionary example of artistic "outrage" influencing professional norms.^[1] Exhibitions such as the 2016–2017 Whitworth Art Gallery display of Raimondi's prints underscore this by juxtaposing I modi copies with Raphael-influenced works, revealing how the series' survival in clandestine woodcut iterations (e.g., circa 1550s) demonstrates suppression's incompleteness while affirming its basis in concerns over widespread dissemination of vice-oriented imagery.^[72] Recent analyses, including links to precursor drawings in Raphael's workshop sketchbooks, further affirm that I modi built on antique-inspired eroticism but prioritized commercial titillation over erudite artistry, challenging progressive narratives of "suppressed genius" by highlighting its crudity and market-driven appeal to base impulses rather than elevated expression.^[73] Contemporary critiques emphasize causal realism in evaluating such censorship: while artistic freedom advanced through print technology, I modi's explicitness—described in studies as proto-pornographic—posed tangible threats of behavioral disruption in a society without modern regulatory buffers, justifying intervention as a safeguard against disorder rather than blanket intolerance.^[74] Ongoing discoveries of related artifacts, such as woodcut copies and workshop attributions, reveal the censorship's limited efficacy but validate its intent by evidencing the work's enduring role in fueling underground erotic markets, underscoring tensions between innovation and societal stability.^[7]

Legacy and Cultural Influence

Impact on Erotic Art and Print Culture

I Modi established a template for sequential erotic engravings, pioneering the mass reproduction of explicit sexual postures through Raimondi's 1524 prints, which shifted erotica from elite manuscripts to broader print dissemination via affordable techniques.^[32] Despite Clement VII's 1527 ban and Raimondi's imprisonment, underground woodcut copies emerged by the 1530s, circulating imagery for over a century and embedding sequential explicitness in European print culture.^[75]^[76] This format directly informed late 16th-century works, notably Agostino Carracci's L'Aretin series (c. 1580s), comprising 18 engravings of mythological copulation that homage I Modi's structure, classical precedents, and unadorned athleticism, thereby extending its influence into Bolognese reform of erotic art. Carracci's adaptations, often parodying antique motifs like the Toilette of Venus, preserved and refined I Modi's emphasis on visible intercourse, fostering a lineage where print enabled iterative artistic exploration of taboo subjects.^[48] By the 18th century, I Modi's sequential model prefigured French erotic livres, such as those illustrated by engravers like François-Rolland Elluin in 1787 adaptations of Aretino, where copperplate engravings replicated poses with heightened anatomical detail, amplifying print's capacity for disseminating prescriptive sexual iconography to non-elite audiences.^[21] This evolution democratized erotic visuals but arguably accelerated societal exposure to unfiltered explicitness, prioritizing technical innovation over restraint and prompting empirical observations of print's role in eroding traditional moral barriers around sexuality.^[77] While enhancing artistic accessibility, the normalization of such sequences incurred costs in public decorum, as evidenced by persistent censorship efforts amid surging demand for derivative works.^[76]

References in Literature, Philosophy, and Popular Culture

Pietro Aretino composed sixteen sonnets known as Sonetti lussuriosi around 1527 to accompany the engravings of I Modi, providing explicit textual descriptions of the depicted sexual positions and emphasizing carnal pleasure over procreative intent.^[71] These verses, circulated clandestinely after their initial printing in Venice, marked an innovative fusion of visual and poetic erotica, influencing subsequent Renaissance literary treatments of sexuality by prioritizing sensory detail and satirical commentary on human desire.^[41] In English literature, John Donne alluded to Aretino's sonnets in his elegies, such as "Elegy XIX: To His Mistress Going to Bed," where he invokes lascivious imagery that scholars interpret as engaging with the chastening or moral reframing of I Modi-inspired motifs, contrasting erotic provocation with spiritual restraint.^[78] Ben Jonson referenced the engravings in his masques and poems, embedding learned allusions to I Modi within early modern dramatic satire to critique voyeuristic indulgence while nodding to their status as notorious exemplars of illicit print culture.^[79] Philosophical discourse on I Modi emerged in Enlightenment-era debates over artistic liberty and censorship, with the series cited as a catalyst for the 1559 Index Librorum Prohibitorum, prompting reflections on the boundaries between expressive freedom and moral corruption in treatises like those examining regulated sexual imagery.^[80] Thinkers analyzed the work's challenge to classical precedents, arguing it shifted erotic representation from mythological allegory to direct anatomical realism, fueling arguments for state intervention against prints that allegedly incited vice without philosophical elevation.^[81] In modern literature, Sarah Dunant's 2003 novel In the Company of the Courtesan integrates Aretino's sonnets into its narrative, portraying them as pivotal artifacts in a fictionalized Renaissance intrigue that highlights their subversive role in Venetian cultural life. Scholarly histories of erotica, such as those tracing pornographic continuums, reference I Modi and its sonnets as foundational to textual explorations of sexual mechanics, though without widespread penetration into mainstream popular media beyond academic revivals like 19th-century editions by collectors such as Waldeck.^[41]

Recent Studies, Exhibitions, and Artifacts

In 2016, the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester hosted the first major UK exhibition dedicated to Marcantonio Raimondi, titled Marcantonio Raimondi and Raphael, running from September 30 to April 23, 2017, which included references to his engravings of I Modi and highlighted their role in early modern print culture and scandal.^[82]^[30] The exhibit displayed fragments and related works, underscoring the series' provocative erotic content as a deliberate challenge to contemporary moral boundaries rather than mere artistic exercise.^[30] A 2024 analysis in Sequitur, published by Boston University, examined I Modi's censorship history, arguing that its destruction—leaving only fragments and two intact engravings—stemmed from the work's blatant sexual explicitness, which invited active viewer participation and blurred lines between antique revival and modern obscenity.^[1] The study posits that responses to the series amplified its impact, with papal intervention reflecting fears of uncontrolled dissemination via prints, affirming the original's intent to provoke rather than sanitize eroticism for elite consumption.^[1] Surviving artifacts remain limited, with the British Museum holding nine fragments from seven engravings of I Modi (cataloged as Ii,16.6.1-9), depicting sexual positions known as the "Loves of the Gods," produced around 1510–1520 by Agostino Veneziano after Raimondi's designs.^[19] These remnants, mounted on a single sheet, represent the primary physical evidence of the originals, as widespread destruction followed their 1524 publication; additional 19th-century drawings in the Museum's collection (1868,0328.376–395) copy lost I Modi engravings, aiding attribution but revealing no new complete specimens.^[2] Recent scholarship has refined understandings of these fragments' technical details, such as engraving styles, without uncovering major lost caches.^[19]

References

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Dangers of Response: “I modi” and its Censorship - Boston University
Apr 16, 2024 · These drawings were then given to Raimondi, who made a set of engravings based on Romano's drawings in 1524. Influential author and satirist ...
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drawing | British Museum
1868,0328.376-395 are based on Marcantonio Raimondi's lost series of engravings of 'I Modi', which were based on designs by Giulio Romano. Pietro Aretino later ...
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The erotic art book banned by a pope | Michael Prodger - The Critic
Feb 16, 2024 · When the suite of prints was published as I Modi (“The Positions”), the Medici Pope Clement VII had Marcantonio imprisoned and all copies of the ...
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STANDING BRONZES, RICCIO, AND "I MODI" - jstor
explicit eroticism of I Modi. As is now well known, Marcantonio's engravings can only be reconstructed from copies of various date, quality, and ...
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Often regarded as the first modern pornographer, the poet and satirist Pietro Aretino (1492–1556) penned some of the most lurid and salacious verses of the ...
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When Marcantonio Raimondi's I Modi hit the streets of Rome in 1524, sexually explicit imagery, like that mentioned in the unnamed booklet above, had ...
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[PDF] Sexual Representations in Early Sixteenth-Century Northern Europe
Similar inscriptions were added to prints in the years after Marcantonio's imprisonment of 1524 for engraving his sixteen I Modi prints.51 With the papal ...
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Giulio Romano and the Erotic Revolution - Roderick Conway Morris
Dec 3, 2019 · After inheriting its management, in around 1524, Giulio produced I Modi ('The Positions'), a series of sixteen exquisitely executed drawings ...
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[PDF] The Importance of Frankfurt Printing before 1550. Sebald Beham ...
Marcantonio Raimondi's I Modi engravings made after drawings by Giulio Romano, which show various lovemaking positions. A decade earlier Willibald ...
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Voyeur & Violator: The Obscene Narrative in Early Modern Italy
Outside these images lie the obscenities of Renaissance visual culture such as Marcantonio Raimondi's I Modi, engravings after drawings by Giulio Romano and ...<|separator|>
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[PDF] Volume 32 - Rutgers Art Review
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FRAGMENTS FROM THE ORIGINAL 1524 I MODI (ENGRAVINGS)
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Giulio Romano (?). School/style: Italian. Production date: 1510-1520. Materials: paper. Technique: engraving. Dimensions: Height: 240 millimetres (sheet): Width ...
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Dialogo di Maddalena e Giulia, this position has the man on his back and the woman on top of him. See: Lynn. Lawner, I Modi, the Sixteen Pleasures. An Erotic ...
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[PDF] the scultori and ghisi - JScholarship - Johns Hopkins University
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Lot and His Daughters, from the series Lascivie Agostino Carracci ...
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Oct 4, 1999 · ... Agostino Carracci's lascivie and Marcantonio's extremely graphic etchings for “I Modi”— “The Postures.” The energetic coupling in these ...
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Raphael's Roman studio was a leading exponent in the use of male and female nude models for life drawing, which underpinned so many of its productions. The ...
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I aim to replace monographic accounts of erotic-aesthetic invention, focused only on Giulio Romano, with a model of collective experimentation. Issue Section:.
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