Icons of erotic art #18

Via the newly discovered blog aileron comes the film The Lost Secret of Catherine the Great by Peter Woditsch and Sophie Schoukens.

I had first heard about the erotic furniture of Catherine the Great a couple of years ago and even traced the existence of the documentary by Woditsch, but had never actually seen the pieces of furniture that presumedly belonged to Catherine before the collection was destroyed during WWII. Catherine was a strong and independent woman (it helped that she was an empress) who throughout her long reign, took many lovers, often elevating them to high positions for as long as they held her interest, and then pensioning them off with large estates and gifts of serfs. She also cultivated Voltaire, Diderot and D’Alembert — all French philosophes encyclopedists who later cemented her reputation in their writings.

Note: In the erotic furniture category belong art works such as Chair, Table and Hat Stand by Allen Jones and Les Krims‘s Heavy Feminist with Wedding Cake [1] (1970).

Previous entries in Icons of Erotic Art here, and in a Wiki format here.

7 thoughts on “Icons of erotic art #18”

  1. alerion

    Thanks for your comment and mention. I am not sure if you get notified of the reply I gave on my site so here is an abbreviated version of my reply to your query re the pic and d’hancarville:

    I think the problem is my silly layout. The category heading the pic is in is ‘People’ – and the pic relates to Catherine the Great. Presumably the table was hers – the pic accompanies many of the articles etc about the film. The pic is just there to lighten the mood. The next person in the list (alpha) is d’Hancarville, so no connection.

    Had I been able to find a scrap more info about the table, or any other pics of any additional erotic furniture belonging to Catherine the Great, I’d probably have used it in a separate post. But there was absolutely nothing.

  2. jahsonic

    Alerion,

    So as it is, we are not even sure that this table actually belonged to Catherine’s collection or was taken from the film mentioned?

    I really need to see this film.

    Pleased to meet you.

    Jan

  4. roygbiv7

    I suppose the only way of resolving it is to see the film. I presume this oldish picture of the table is featured in the film, and if so, I presume this is the only surviving evidence of such a room. If so it does make the case look a little shaky. But heck, it’s worth seeing the film to see what kind of a tale Woditsch can weave, and whether it seems credible.

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  6. jahsonic

    @Anonymous. Thanks for commenting. Can you tell me more? What is the name of the castle? Do you have scans of the image. If you wish, you can contact me by email. at jwgeerinck [at] hotmail.com

  7. boerinikke

    i once saw an documentary i think it was called forbidden museum or something like that, and it’s about erotic art wasting away in the depot’s of museum’s around thew world, there also was a mention and some more about the secret erotic room of catherine the great, it is either said that the nazi’s plundered it or the caretakers took it with them ans some where found by the nazi’s, but the most interesting thing about the documentary is, that some guy say’s that he heared from a girlfriend that long ago when she was i think but a girl, her father took her to the vatican because he had to do something there, and some priest said to her something like ”he do you want see something wierd” or whatever, the description that she gave to him was not the table shown here, but another there you she i think 3 fauns with an erected penis, so there is a high chance that that table still exist in the vatican.

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