Peruvian gallery shows an erotica-inspired world
lima, peru» A thousand years before “Fifty Shades of Grey” steamed up movie theaters, ancient cultures in Peru were depicting sex in many shades of clay, which are on exhibit in a well-curated museum in Lima.
The private Larco Museum has more than 45,000 artifacts, in clay, gold, silver and textiles, spanning 5,000 years of pre-Columbian Peruvian history. But it’s the pieces in the Erotica Gallery that raise eyebrows for the unsuspecting tourist.
It’s here, with no apology or embarrassment, that two rooms filled with clay pots and sculpture graphically depict male and female humans, animals, gods and skeletons engaging in all manner of sexual activity.
Unlike E.L. James’ blockbuster trilogy-turned-movie, which offers little more than voyeurism, the pieces in the Peruvian exhibit were made for a greater purpose.
“Sexual representations in pre-Columbian Peruvian art are associated with fertility rites, sacrifice ceremonies and ancestor worship,” reads an explanation in the gallery.
Some pre-Columbia civilizations, like the Moche of northern Peru, whose civilization spanned A.D. 100800, believed in a life cycle that encompassed the gods above, our world and the dead below, according to Andres Alvarez-Calderon, the museum’s director. Copulation among the gods helped produce the fruit of the Earth and ensure successful agriculture. The dead engaged in non-reproductive sex
acts to spill their seed and fertilize the Earth. Humans got the best of both worlds, so to speak. Intercourse created new life, and sexual activity that didn’t lead to procreation symbolically linked this world with the underworld.
As works of art, the erotica is on par with any of the other Moche pieces, said Bob Dodge, co-founder of Artemis Gallery Ancient Art in Erie. The sculptors were the same ones crafting pieces with other themes, and they were “some of the finest artists of the ancient world,” he said.
The pre-Columbians viewed sex as a complementary duality of masculine and feminine, a theme found through the museum, through an embrace of upper and lower realms, the sun and the moon, even light and dark ceramic glazes.
The museum was founded in 1926 by archaeologist Rafael Larco Hoyle, Alvarez-Calderon’s grandfather. Renovated in 2010, it is located in an 18th-century colonial mansion that was built over pre-Columbian ruins. In addition to well-lit displays with good explanations in multiple languages, the grounds offer an award-winning garden filled with bougainvillea and orchids, and an outstanding restaurant.
The museum boasts one of the most comprehensive collections of pre-Columbian Peruvian gold and silver in the world, and some of the pieces are magnificent. Also of note are exquisite and well-preserved textiles. There are also funerary masks and objects for sacred rituals, including some believed used for human sacrifice.
In an unusual move, the museum’s storage rooms are also open to the public, and the number of pots and figures lined up row after row from floor to ceiling is staggering.
The museum had a steady stream of visitors, including some groups, the day I visited in February, but it wasn’t overcrowded. The Erotica Gallery is set apart from the main museum — perhaps to keep unsuspecting school groups from wandering in — because despite its historic significance, some exhibits, like some movies, are better rated R.