The Secret Museum or Secret Cabinet () in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

is the collection of 1st-century Roman erotic art found in Pompeii and Herculaneum, now held in separate galleries at the National Archaeological Museum, the former Museo Borbonico. The term "cabinet" is used in reference to the "

cabinet of curiosities Cabinets of curiosities ( and ), also known as wonder-rooms ( ), were encyclopedic collections of objects whose categorical boundaries were, in Renaissance Europe, yet to be defined. Although more rudimentary collections had preceded them, t ...

" - i.e. any well-presented collection of objects to admire and study.

History

Re-opened, closed, re-opened again and then closed again for nearly 100 years, the secret room was briefly made accessible again at the end of the 1960s before being finally re-opened in 2000. Since 2005 the collection has been kept in a separate room in the Naples National Archaeological Museum. Although the excavation of Pompeii was initially an Enlightenment project, once artifacts were classified through a new method of

taxonomy image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...

, those deemed obscene and unsuitable for the general public were termed pornography and in 1821 they were locked away in a Secret Museum. The doorway was bricked up in 1849. Throughout ancient

Pompeii Pompeii ( ; ) was a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Villa Boscoreale, many surrounding villas, the city was buried under of volcanic ash and p ...

and

Herculaneum Herculaneum is an ancient Rome, ancient Roman town located in the modern-day ''comune'' of Ercolano, Campania, Italy. Herculaneum was buried under a massive pyroclastic flow in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Like the nearby city of ...

, erotic

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

es, depictions of the god

Priapus In Greek mythology, Priapus (; ) is a minor rustic fertility god, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens, and male genitalia. Priapus is marked by his oversized, permanent erection, which gave rise to the medical term priapism. He becam ...

, sexually explicit symbols and inscriptions, and household items such as

phallic A phallus (: phalli or phalluses) is a penis (especially when erect), an object that resembles a penis, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. In art history, a figure with an erect penis is described as ''ithyphallic''. Any object that symbo ...

oil lamps were found. The ancient Roman understanding of sexuality viewed explicit material very differently from most present-day cultures. Ideas about

obscenity An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin , , "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Generally, the term can be used to indicate strong moral ...

developed from the 18th century to the present day into a modern concept of

pornography Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is Sexual suggestiveness, sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolv ...

. At Pompeii, locked metal cabinets were constructed over erotic frescos, which could be shown, for an additional fee, to gentlemen but not to ladies. This

peep show A peep show, peepshow, or, a peep booth is a presentation of a live sex show or pornographic film which is viewed through a viewing slot. Several historical media provided voyeuristic entertainment through hidden erotic imagery. Before the devel ...

was still in operation at Pompeii in the 1960s. The cabinet was only accessible to "people of mature age and respected morals", which in practice meant only educated men. The catalogue of the secret museum was also a form of censorship, as engravings and descriptive texts played down the content of the room.

Gallery

Ermafrodito, affresco Romano di Ercolano (1–50 d.C., Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli) - 02.jpg, Hermaphroditus. Wall painting from Herculaneum. 1 CE – 50 CE Coll. borgia, bronzetto con scena erotica sodomitica, 27715.JPG, Sculpture depicting sex Cerámica Gabinetto segreto Nápoles.JPG, Anal sex between two males. Etruscan amphora. 5th century BCE Napoli, museo archeologico (8105426048).jpg, Marble statue of Satyr and Nymph. From Pollena Trocchia Fragment of wall painting with erotic scene, from Pompeii, Naples National Archaeological Museum (17297820526).jpg, Sexual scene from Pompeii in the Secret Museum Wall painting - love making - Pompeii - Napoli MAN 27697.jpg, Sexual scene from Pompeii in the Secret Museum Erotic scene Pompeii MAN Napoli Inv27696.jpg, Sexual scene from Pompeii in the Secret Museum Pan copulating with goat 1.JPG, Pan copulating with goat, 1st century BCE – 1st century CE

Notes

References

External links

* {{authority control Collection of the National Archaeological Museum, Naples Art museums and galleries in Campania Archaeological museums in Italy Museums in Naples Sex museums Sexuality in Italy Censorship in Italy Sexuality in classical antiquity National Archaeological Museum, Naples

History

Gallery

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links