The erotic prints in this set are among very few
such works to have survived from the sixteenth century, during which a huge expansion in printing technology allowed a wider array of collectors than ever before to pursue their specialist interests. Many such editions would have been suppressed during moralizing purges, among them the infamous When Februs folded in 2004, I was exhausted and quite happy to give myself a break and change direction. Everyone has to adjust to the prevailing circumstances. I love the internet and I use the latest technology; couldn’t do without it now, but I still prefer reading actual books and painting and drawing with actual brushes and pencils. Here’s how reading erotica can light new fires in you, stoking your wants and desires. THE BODY-MIND CONNECTION. Welcome to my world. I’m a retired sex therapist and educator who crafts erotic fantasies to arouse your mind and other parts. in which the man’s prone form is very similar to that of the above watercolor, show explicit coupling and, like the watercolor, have an indeterminate purpose. Were they objects of exchange among Fuseli’s peers, or were they for private consumption, to be used for the purpose of self-pleasure? Fuseli inscribed the sketch with a line from Aeschylus’s tragedy

Having acquired a reputation as a portraitist among the upper classes of Zagreb, Auer painted over 150 portraits. He was the sole Croatian painter to be included in the Munich Secession Exhibition of 1896, and his work received a special prize at the exhibition of Croatian painting at the Paris World’s Fair of 1906. He established his art studio in Rokovo Perivoj (Roko’s Park), near the Vila Auer, his parents’ house where he had grown up. Together with his wife, the painter Leopoldina Auer-Schmidt, he ran a private art school while also holding a professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of Zagreb. Cleopatra, 1908

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I do recall meeting a lady in her early sixties who suddenly discovered a passion for being spanked, but she was very unusual. She told me that she had been trapped in a stifling marriage for years, and after her divorce the need for spanking just burst out spontaneously in her fantasies. She had gone in search of experience and found a new partner, and a wonderful release from her frustrations. Erotic relationships in later life need to be flexible and caring – we all have a lot of history behind us, and must treat each other with special understanding. Sex has a quite different role to play at this time. A Georges Delfau illustration from L’invitation Reflecting on the commercial world of erotic films in the light of these realisations, I can now see that whenever something becomes a lucrative industry it automatically starts imposing a formula and then the creativity and enjoyment goes out of it. The whole business becomes a sort of factory, churning out more of the same. Besides, I was being naive to imagine that anything involving real sex could possibly be an art form. We are making impossible demands on actors, expecting them to be convincing in a role at the same time as ‘performing’ sex for real. This is a misuse of the sex drive, and it goes against the natural inclinations of most human beings, so they are bound to feel used over time. I recall that hilarious scene in Woody Allen’s film ‘Sleeper’, where Diane Keaton invites him into the Orgasmatron to ‘perform’ sex with her. What could be more off-putting? Sardax’s specialities are a conventionally figurative technique combined with an unbounded imagination. Though he has only illustrated two books, The Art of Sardax (Erotic Print Society, 2006) and his own translation of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s Venus in Furs (Stiletto, 2013), his artwork has featured in numerous specialist magazines and his commissions, many from working dominatrixes, have reached an enormous international audience. We are also fortunate that Sardax has written about how what set him on the path of femdom illustration. In a 2015 blog post he writes:

Despite strictures from religious authorities, people down the years kept these images safe, aware that what we imagine can arouse us at least as much as the readily apparent. The meaning of these sexual sculptures is debated, and suggestions have ranged from their being educational images providing instruction on contraception, to examples of Moche moralizing or humor, to the portrayal of ceremonial and religious rites. They are mostly without archaeological context, but recent systematic archaeological excavation suggests that they were elite grave gifts. Fantasy is a powerful component to start a sexual process in your body. If you understand how your body works, then you can use erotica exploration to gain understandings of what turns you on. Perhaps I had been inclined to suppress my feelings in the pursuit of adventure. The other day I came across an old interview I did in the eighties. The young me said, ‘I was consciously trying to discover what sex was when it is completely separated from love’. How odd that sounds! No doubt it was a rebellion against the prevailing view that no decent woman could possibly enter into a sexual liaison unless she was deeply in love. This didn’t mean I wasn’t looking for love – everybody needs love – but I wanted to learn to make the distinction in my relationships between lust and love. ‘Floating Lovers’continued the tradition of Raimondi, also borrowing the names of Aretino and Carracci, with its catalogue of sexual positions to which it lends a veneer of respectability by giving its subjects names drawn from classical mythology. In many of the stories I illustrated for Janus and Februs the dominant characters were frequently middle-aged or older. They reflected the fantasies that readers requested, usually because they were recalling their far-off schools days with a disciplinarian teacher. I have to admit that there was a humorous element in many of these scenes, particularly the ones set in the Victorian era.