#000555
Eros in Pompeii: The Secret Rooms of the National Museum of Naples
Michael Grant; photographs by Antonia Mulas
A photographic study of the erotic art of Pompeii and Herculaneum — the frescoes, sculptures, and objects long sequestered in the 'secret cabinet' of the National Museum of Naples, kept from public view for their explicit content. Antonia Mulas's color photographs document more than eighty works, while the eminent classical historian Michael Grant supplies the text: the social and political life of Pompeii, the catastrophe of Vesuvius, the history of the collection, and a catalog analyzing each piece's style, origin, and mythological or everyday inspiration. The result treats material once dismissed as mere pornography as what it also is — evidence of how ordinary Romans wove sexuality into domestic decoration, religion, and humor. Frank without being prurient, it is at once an art book, a social history, and a record of changing attitudes toward what a museum will and will not show.
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The author and photographer
Michael Grant (1914–2004) was a prolific and widely read British classical historian who wrote dozens of accessible books on Greece and Rome. Antonia Mulas was an Italian photographer known for her studies of art and the human form. Their collaboration pairs scholarly framing with high-quality visual documentation.
The book
Eros in Pompeii: The Secret Rooms of the National Museum of Naples first appeared in English in 1975. It presents the museum's Gabinetto Segreto — the erotic material excavated from Pompeii and Herculaneum and hidden away from the eighteenth century onward — with Grant's historical text and a documented catalog of the major objects.
How it has aged
The book sits at an interesting hinge in cultural attitudes. When it appeared, the Naples "secret cabinet" was still largely closed to the public; it did not open permanently until 2000. Grant's approach — taking the erotica seriously as social and art-historical evidence rather than titillation — anticipated the more matter-of-fact scholarship that followed. Some interpretive framing is now dated, but as an early, respectful presentation of the collection it holds up well and remains a useful visual reference.
For more context
See later scholarship on Roman sexuality (e.g., John Clarke's work) and on the reopened Gabinetto Segreto.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Michael Grant; photographs by Antonia Mulas
- Year
- 1975
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Art
- Location
- Colorado