In and Out of the Marital Bed : Seeing Sex in Renaissance Europe

This book explores images whose sexual content has all too often been either ignored or denied. Each chapter is devoted to a place that artists associated with sexual activity or desire: the bed, the dressing area of the home, the window and doorway, the bath, and the street. By examining both canonical works, such as Jan van Eyck'sArnolfini Portraitand Petrus Christus'Goldsmith's Shopand long-neglected objects, such as combs, badges, and bathhouse murals, and by investigating a wide range of sexualitiessame-sex desire, adultery, marriage, courtship, and prostitutionWolfthal demonstrates how illicit forms of sexuality were linked to the "chaste sexuality" of marriage.

Diane Wolfthal is David and Caroline Minter Chair in the Humanities and Professor of Art History at Rice University.