Book contents
- Ars Erotica
- Ars Erotica
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 Ars Erotica and the Question of Aesthetics
- 2 Dialectics of Desire and Virtue
- 3 The Biblical Tradition
- 4 Chinese Qi Erotics
- 5 Lovemaking as Aesthetic Education
- 6 Fragrance, Veils, and Violence
- 7 From Romantic Refinement to Courtesan Connoisseurship
- 8 Commingling, Complexity, and Conflict
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - Commingling, Complexity, and Conflict
Erotic Theory in Medieval and Renaissance Europe
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 March 2021
- Ars Erotica
- Ars Erotica
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 Ars Erotica and the Question of Aesthetics
- 2 Dialectics of Desire and Virtue
- 3 The Biblical Tradition
- 4 Chinese Qi Erotics
- 5 Lovemaking as Aesthetic Education
- 6 Fragrance, Veils, and Violence
- 7 From Romantic Refinement to Courtesan Connoisseurship
- 8 Commingling, Complexity, and Conflict
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Having studied the erotic traditions of classical Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian, Chinese, Indian, Islamic, and Japanese cultures, we now explore how some of them commingled in medieval and Renaissance Europe, creating a richly diverse but deeply conflicted field of erotic theory. Condemned as devilish and degrading, erotic desire was contrastingly commended for its power to educate and uplift, for its capacities to inspire individuals to strive for greater achievements of knowledge, grace, and virtue, as well as higher levels of love. Scholars once sharply distinguished the Middle Ages from the Renaissance, viewing the latter as a new expression of personal individuality and fresh, bold thinking that challenged entrenched Christian dogma by drawing on the inspiration of classical pagan Greco-Roman sources. But it is hard to draw a sharp line or essential divide between these two ill-defined periods, since they display considerable continuities, and each contains far too much diversity to be reduced to a distinctive, defining essence.1
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Ars EroticaSex and Somaesthetics in the Classical Arts of Love, pp. 315 - 396Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021