Let’s get inky! A Nineteenth-century condom etched with an erotic print is now on view on the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in a show of varied historic objects surrounding intercourse work and sexual well being. Depicting an uncovered nun pointing at three aroused clergymen, the condom is made from sheep gut and dated to roughly 1830, when it was probably a memento from a luxurious brothel in France.
Beneath the etching is the inscription “Voilà mon choix,” which interprets to “This is my choice” in English. Joyce Zelen, a curator of prints on the Rijksmuseum who secured the condom’s acquisition final November, informed Hyperallergic that the textual content shouldn’t be solely a joke concerning the nun’s unorthodox wishes, but in addition a reference to Historical Greek mythology.
“ On one hand, it shows a sort of parody on religious celibacy, but the composition is also clearly a joke on the Judgment of Paris, where he [the prince of Troy] chooses the most beautiful of the three Greek goddesses before him,” Zelen mentioned in a cellphone name. “For me, that underlines the potential clientele for such a luxury condom with a print — they were probably a wealthy and well-read person.”
She additionally famous that behind the nun within the illustration is a cradle, clearly indicating her want to get pregnant.
A element shot of the printed condom on view on the Rijksmuseum
Zelen and certainly one of her colleagues got here throughout the article final November at a Bubb Kuyper public sale in Haarlem.
“We came to the point where we had to decide: ‘Which of us is going to call our boss to ask if we can buy a condom?’ And yeah, that was me,” she mentioned. They bought the article at its beginning value of €1,000 (~$1137).
At an above common 20 cm (~7.9 inches) in size, the condom is protected by a vitrine and anchors a broader show of assortment objects pertaining to intercourse work and sexual well being within the 1800s, primarily surrounding the hazards and proliferation of syphilis forward of the event of penicillin.
“On one side, we have erotic prints of couples in almost all of the kama sutra positions, and images surrounding the male fantasy of visiting a brothel and choosing the most beautiful woman to take him behind the curtain,” Zelen defined.
“But there isn’t a single condom in those images, since that ruins the fantasy,” she continued. “So on the other side, we highlight the actual reasons why condoms became popular, including syphilis and unwanted pregnancies.”
Photographs and tales from medical publications are included on the academic facet of the show, together with documentation of those that had been contaminated with syphilis as adults and people who had been born with congenital defects after being contaminated in utero.
The printed condom anchors a show within the Rijksmuseum’s Print Room regarding intercourse work and sexual well being within the Nineteenth century.
That being mentioned, Zelen famous that “it was frowned upon or forbidden to use condoms for contraceptive and preventative purposes in the church,” and that medical professionals of the period couched venereal illnesses in additional summary phrases, like “skin diseases,” as a consequence of their taboo.
The sheep gut condoms had been designed to be washable and reusable for being pregnant and illness prevention at the moment, however Zelen famous that they had been fairly ineffective at each. All issues thought of, she doesn’t consider that the printed condom had any mileage on it earlier than it grew to become a novelty merchandise.
Rebecca Fasman, a curator on the Kinsey Institute for Analysis in Intercourse, Gender, and Replica in Bloomington, Indiana, informed Hyperallergic that she loves that the Rijksmuseum’s acquisition goes to be on show.
“ Oftentimes we think of our ancestors as being kind of humorless or under the belief that sex is only for procreative purposes — or that people weren’t having these robust, wild sex lives,” Fasman mentioned. “Part of our shared humanity, as proven by items like this etched condom, is that not only were people having non-procreative sex, but they’re also laughing about it and creating material culture that also was sort of in on the joke.”
The condom can be on show on the Rijksmuseum till someday in November.
