Il nudo maschile

Speranza

But there was another equally understandlable reason for the AVOIDANCE of MALE nudes at this epoch, which is that they had become tained by the rise of homosexual pornography.

Even before the scandal of Oscar Wilde case in the 1890s, erotic presentations of the MALE NUDe had tended to be found only in a twilight realm.

The 'Grecian' aim was sexual excitation, and the pornographers developed no new forms, but distorted and adapted the existing language of heterosexual eroticism.

Their rigidly structured and derivative system of imagery had little to induce artistic expriementalists to dabble with it.