Comment on Venus Priapus

Examples of Priapus as a motif among sculptors, authors, and scholars contemporary with Thorvaldsen:

  • Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665): The Empire of Flora, 1631, Old Masters Picture Gallery, Dresden (painting). See the digital edition here.
  • Francisco Goya (1746-1828): The Sacrifice to Priapus, 1771, private collection (painting). See the digital edition here.
  • Pierre d’Hancarville (1719-1805): Veneres et Priapi uti observantur in gemmis antiquis [Venuses and Priapuses as Observed in Ancient Gems], 1771 (erotic picture-book).
  • Jean-Guillaume Moitte (1746-1810): The Sacrifice to Priapus, ca. 1778, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, inv. no. 2008.42.5 (drawing).
  • Conrad Gottlob Anton (1745-1814) (ed.): Priapeia sive Diversorum Poetarum in Priapum Lusus Aliaquae Incertorum Auctorum Poemata Emendata et Explicata Accesserunt Epistolae De Priapismo Propudiosa Cleopatriae Libidine, Jos. Scaligeri versiones duorum Priapeiorum et Index, Leipzig 1781 (a new edition of the classical anthology Priapeia, a collection of 80 [or 95] epigrams by unknown authors, assembled in ca. 100 AD).
  • William Hamilton (1731-1803): An Account of the Remains of the Worship of Priapus lately existing at Isernia in the Kingdom of Naples, December 30, 1781 (letter).
  • Richard Payne Knight (1750-1824): A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus, and its Connection with the Mystic Theology of the Ancients, 1786 (treatise).
  • Pierre d’Hancarville: Monuments du culte secret des dames romaines [Monuments of the Roman Ladies’ Secret Cult], 1787 (erotic picture-book).
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Römische Elegien und Venezianische Epigramme, Erotica Romana, Priapea [Roman Elegies and Venetian Epigrams, Roman Erotic Writings, Priapea], 1788–1790 (poems).
  • Dominique Vivant Denon (1747-1825): Oeuvre Priapique, 1790-1794, The British Museum, inv. no. 1878,0511.xxx (graphic series).
  • Francois Joseph Michel Noël (1756-1841) (ed.): Erotopægnion, Sive Priapeia Veterum et Recentiorum, Veneri Iocosae Sacrum, Paris 1798 (a new edition of the Priapeia).
  • Carl August Ehrensvärd (1745-1800): The Sacrifice to Priapus, før 1800, Uppsala University Library, inv. no. 340 (drawing).
  • Angelica Kauffmann: Nymphs Adoring a Herm of Priapus, no later than 1807, location unknown (painting).
  • César Famin (1799-1853): Musée royal de Naples, peintures, bronzes et statues érotiques du cabinet secret, avec leur explication [The Royal Museum at Naples: Paintings, Bronzes, and Statues of the Secret Cabinet, Explained], Naples 1916 (museum catalogue).

Last updated 22.12.2015