The history of erotic depictions includes paintings , sculpture , photographs , dramatic arts , music and writings that show scenes of a sexual nature throughout time. They have been created by nearly every civilization, ancient and modern. In Asian countries such as India , Nepal , Sri Lanka , Japan , Korea , and China , representations of sex and erotic art have specific spiritual meanings within native religions.
The ancient Greeks and Romans produced much art and decoration of an erotic nature, much of it integrated with their religious beliefs and cultural practices. In more recent times, as communication technologies evolved, each new technique, such as printing , photography , motion pictures and computers , has been adapted to display and disseminate these depictions.
In early times, erotic depictions were often a subset of the indigenous or religious art of cultures and as such were not set aside or treated differently than any other type.
The modern concept of pornography did not exist until the Victorian era. Its current definition was added in the s, replacing the older one meaning writings about prostitutes. Though some specific sex acts were regulated or prohibited by earlier laws, merely looking at objects or images depicting them was not outlawed in any country until In some cases, the possession of certain books, engravings or image collections was outlawed, but the trend to compose laws that actually restricted viewing sexually explicit things in general was a Victorian construct.
When large-scale excavations of Pompeii were undertaken in the s, much of the erotic art of the Romans came to light, shocking the Victorians who saw themselves as the intellectual heirs of the Roman Empire. They did not know what to do with the frank depictions of sexuality, and endeavored to hide them away from everyone but upper-class scholars. The movable objects were locked away in the Secret Museum in Naples , and what could not be removed was covered and cordoned off so as to not corrupt the sensibilities of women, children and the working class.
