We can start with the aforementioned Persephone.

My thoughts exactly.

Given the information on the Greek myth, how do you view this painting now? Is it erotic in a sense? What other examples come to your mind, Riette.

Could you post the picture again here, so people will know what we're talking about, please Terry? Also I need to be able to look at it while making comments - I have it in my memory, but I find that it is often the small things that one doesn't see straight away in a painting, that give the best clues to the interpretation. A painting that I find erotic and very moving, is Hero and Leander (painted in 1849) by William Etty. It is based on a myth in which Leander would swim across a stretch of sea to meet his lover Hero, a priestess of Aphrodite. She would guide him by holding up a lighted torch. One night, during a storm, Leander drowned. The grief-stricken Hero threw herself from a tower. In the painting the two dead lovers are shown in their tragic, final embrace. Do you have a photo to post? Again, I can post you ine to put in if you like.

OK, you asked to have the Persephone painting by Benton, so here it is again in all it's glory, rich with mythology.

Yes, I do find the painting both erotic and exciting, Terry. The way Hades creeps up on Persephone is scary, but also exciting - he knows he should not be there, but that is the most erotic part: his obvious, almost akward desire - we all know that he is going to get her, but he doesn't look as if he knows. The thing that 'bothered' me (in a very pleasant way) about this painting is that Persephone herself doesn't look completely unaware of Hades behind the tree. She is not quite as innocent as one mi ht think at first glance. Lying there, pretending to be asleep in that inviting position, naked, she is defenitely waiting for SOMEONE. The beautiful flowers which she came to pick lie in her basket, quite forgotten. She has very different things on her mind - she is thoroughly enjoying this abduction! So in a slightly narrowed context, I think this is about desire, and desiring what we can't/musn't have. But desiring nevertheless. In a broader context, this painting could also be a symbol of seasons, I think. I read up on the myth, and it seems to me that the 'underworld' is a symbol for winter. It says that every time Persephone returned from the underworld, she brought spring with her, and when she went back to Hades all the flowers and other plants withered. Which means that she comes from winter (and which makes Hades the god/king of winter) to bring spring, and when she goes, autumn and finally winter set in again.

Here is a favourite of mine: THE BATH Alfred Stevens 1867

Sorry, it's not working. Terry, how can one know whether an image is going to work or not? I tested this one in the tester topic as well just now, but it didn't work. Is it simply to big to post? And with those big pictures, is there any way one can get them smaller? because it's no fun if there are just a bunch of black blocks all over the topics.

Enclose the url in QUOTES. And it will work.

Okay, so here goes: THE BATH Alfred Stevens 1867

Damn it!

That's a url not an image.

I did click on the image!!!

Well, I'm afraid 'The Bath' can't be posted. But here is something else: Paul Gaughin 'Spirit of the Dead Watching' Okay, I know it's got a bit of a sinister undercurrent, but I find almost all his paintings of Polynesian women very erotic. The colours are so warm and intense, and its almost as if he transforms them into goddess figures - obeying only the rules of his imagination..

why can't you post the bath? is it too revealing or something? this one leaves a sense of creepiness as well as eroticism. who hasn't wondered if the dead watch us....

The bath is a stunning painting, and NOTHING's too revealing, but the silly bugger who posted it into the web did not do it in a way that one can post it - tested it several times. But I'll scan my own picture of it through to Wer, so in time we will have it here. And in a version where one can see all of it at once.

And if this isn't erotic, I don't know what is... Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres 'Turkish Bath' 1862 1,10m x 1,10m

What's the url of the website ? (senses a challenge).

The full painting is at http://www.sappho.com/lart/ingres.htm, and if you click on the image, you get this detailed view of part of it.

i think it depicts the closeness of women. is this a bath or a harem?

i went to the site and it's definately a bath. i believe bath for them and bath for us is two different things. isn't a bath a place to relax, kinda like a spa?

Yes, exactly. I love the way they're gossiping away, probably complaining and laughing about husbands and children. It's as if someone was peeping through a little hole in the floor, and saw them when they were in an utterly natural state of being. It's great.

I wonder what our society would be like if we were that uninhibited today?

In Germany they are taking great pains to become that uninhibited again. There is a big trend to do things naked - sports, shopping, socializing, eating out. But it's too forced, and there's nothing innocent about it - it just looks totally silly. Especially on people who do parachuting... I think we know to much - therefore we will never be uninihibited again.

Apparently Muslim women, who in some countries are still secluded and protected from male eyes, feel alright taking their bath together naked - just the women and children though.

Ah, a modern-day example! I guess the Western world has gone too far in other directions.

well nowadays if you bathe with other women you're either lesbian, participating in a team sport, or a jail resident!

ha-ha!!!

Or, at one of Jim O'Briens potlucks taking a sauna.

ha-ha!!! Here in Switzerland they have only mixed saunas, so I never go. I could never sit there naked, sweating my ar$e off with a bunch of guys.

well to me a lot of women that would go to saunas over here are all stuck up and superficial. i would feel like my flabby self was being judged.

Only ever been in the hotel ones, with my family.

i just flat out don't go in the saunas or jacuzzi's -- even the one in the gym!

Wolf, I NEVER used to wear a bikini, even before I became a mother, because I have one of those made-and-left bodies. Beautifully made, just not arranged properly. Twice in my life, I've had a guy and two midwives stare so deep up my backside they could probably see out my nostrils at the other end, and they didn't scream nearly as loud as I did. And so I figure: I don't care about what people think of the way I speak - why the he�� should I care anymore about the way I look to them? I'm married, I don't have to catch some guy, I don't have to show off, because some of those pretty pretty gals around me will sleep alone tonight, fancy legs or not. And me, badly arranged as I am - I'll have someone to sleep AND bump pelvisses with tonight. So I just refuse to be self-conscious.

God, Autumn, do you think that being aware of one's body and trying to get it into better shape is only a single person's concern? Putting aside all the exaggerations of our century, I believe one tries to look good for oneself primarily, but one's partner's good opinion is also to be desired.

Speaking of which: here's something by an artist who didn't mind HOW badly he arranged female body parts on paper or canvas... This drawing is supposedly an unknown masterpiece by Picasso.

i wear a bikini in my backyard! and i, too, know the feeling of being examined like a holstein cow in the throes of terrible calving labor. my husband doesn't care about the road map stretchmarks i've acquired as a result of birthing two big babies. he just wants me to be happy with my body and to feel good about myself. so to all of us not-so-perfect gals, *hugs* who'd want a cookie cutter model off of vogue anyway? (ok, besides wer).....i go to the gym for myself but am not comfortable in any speedo type apparatus (who wants to keep pulling the thong outta their arse anyway)!!

�curling up with laughter!!!!� I've never seen the inside of a gym, so I can only imagine what this piece of apparatus must look like!! That's so unbearable funny!

Gi: God, Autumn, do you think that being aware of one's body and trying to get it into better shape is only a single person's concern? Me: What in the heck are you talking about???

The weather?

and what's that you were saying, Wolf?

Fran�ois Boucher 'Visit of Venus to Vulcan' 1754 I find this painting absolutely gorgeous and pretty erotic too. I'd luv for Boucher's Vulcan to be my blacksmith!

Holy $hit, how the hell did I manage that, Terry?!?!?!

You can tell Vulcan is getting off by this impromptu visitor. Smooching her tit and all!

well, she is touching his, anyway. i like this one....

Smooching her tit?!?! You've got me hysterical at 7:49 in the morning - you sure know the language of art!! HA-HAAAAAAA!!!! $hit, now I can't stop!!

Ah yes, the language of art just comes naturally when you're edgy and cool.

OOH, Terry, you're just turning into such a stud nowadays!

I think he's just looking up at her and her breast is juxtaposed behind his face.

OK spoil our fun.

Poor Terry - so much for your tit smooching theory.

BUT to cheer you up: Fr�d�ric Bazille 'La Toilette' 1870

ha-ha!!!! That didn't exactly work, did it??!?! I'll try again!

Fr�d�ric Bazille 'La Toilette' 1870

Damn - sorry. Fr�d�ric Bazille 'La Toilette' 1870

Can you even imagine someone dressing you every day? My kids won't even let me put their shoes on them.

I would LOVE to be dressed by somebody else every day! I hate getting dressed!

i like the idea, but the actuality? can you imagine? i guess i'm to shy to let someone else dress me (and too independent)

True. I could make my sister dress me though! I'll put some cellotape over her gob so she won't make silly remarks!

i suppose i could get my husband to dress me but i don't think i'd ever get anything on!

ha-ha! Quite!