The Erotic Masquerades of the Enigmatic Andrea Alciato
08 november 2018 
12 min. read

The Erotic Masquerades of the Enigmatic Andrea Alciato

In the search engines the name Andrea Alciato only refers to the Italian jurist and writer who lived in the early 16th Century. Of the enigmatic artist with the same name we discuss today, little biographical data can be found (except that he comes from Austria).

Utamaro

The same mystery can be found in his paintings that mainly are populated by masked figures. When I came across his painting ‘The Golden Coat‘ (Fig.2.) I immediately was reminded of an erotic design by Kitagawa Utamaro (Fig.1.).

Female shamisen player getting approached by a blind male musician wearing a mask. by Utamaro

Fig.1. ‘Female shamisen player getting approached by a blind male musician wearing a mask.‘ (c.1800) by Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806)

Mask

This striking night scene that takes place in the open-air displays the intimacies of two shamisen* players. The (most probably blind) male is wearing a mask. They are joined by two cute puppies.

Michiel Sweerts

In a description of his work ‘The Golden Coat‘ (at Saatchi Art), Alciato explains that he became fascinated by the life and art of Michiel Sweerts (1618-1664). Sweerts was an outstanding Flemish baroque painter (Fig.4.) and printmaker. Little is known about his early life and nothing about his education. He was an avid traveller and worked in several places in Europe and the middle-east and died at the age of 46 in Goa.

painting with two masked lovers wearing feathers by Andrea Alciato

Fig.2. ‘The Golden Coat‘ (December 2016) by Andrea Alciato (Picture by BiblioCuriosa)

Japanese Shunga Prints

Alciato notices that none of Sweerts middle-eastern work survived and he began to imagine of what would have happened if Sweerts had come across Persian erotic miniatures, or Japanese shunga prints, what certainly could have been possible. He wondered, how would Sweerts have merged the leveled stylized view of the oriental eye and the technical gimmicks and cannon of the northern 17th chiaroscuro tradition? How would the explicit intimacy look like in that multi-cultural fusion?

painting with participants of a masquerade ball with tapping pee and breast milk by Andrea Alciato

Fig.3. ‘Prima Materia III : The Alembic‘ (??) by Andrea Alciato (Picture by SaatchiArt)

Smother

Athough the Dutch-Flemish baroque painting is laden with the erotic, it is buried underneath the black velvet and white laced suspicion that constantly threatens to smother it. Alciato enjoys the broad-mindedness of shunga and Persian miniatures and its relaxed attitude to the erotic.

Supernatural

In his paintings, he adds masks to evoke a supernatural element to the protagonists which turns them from portraits into archetypes. They are both broad and captivating, but at the same time also a little alienating and confounding.

L'Atelier de dessin'  (1656-1658) by Michiel Sweerts

Fig.4. ‘L’Atelier de dessin’  (1656-1658) by Michiel Sweerts

Oriental Prince

Here the oriental prince (Fig.2.) embraces and consumes the cheerful Western showgirl in a whirl of vulgar, colorful chiaroscuro detail. It also refers to the contemporary climate in which mistrust and contempt that feeds our fears of ‘the other’, the change of demographics and mixed marriage are masked as an impenetrable cultural conflict. He suggests that maybe the beauty of Eros can help us find resolution.

More exciting art of the artist…

masquerade ball with sensual nude female by andrea alciato

Fig.5. ‘The Perfection of Silver

peeing female with two masked men by andrea alciato

Fig.6. ‘Prima Materia IV : The Primasdorff

two masked males with sensual masked female by andrea alciato

Fig.7. ‘Lilies are still Lilies

nude male performing cunnilingus on a masked female by andrea alciato

Fig.8. ‘The Earthly Paradise

painting erotic masquerades by andrea alciato

Fig.9. ‘Alchemical Emblem: Energy Mitigated With Love

two corpulent females wearing masks performing fellatio to a blind-folded male by andrea alciato

Fig.10. ‘Prima Materia I

interracial threesome with two males and a sensual female holding the white man's penis by andrea alciato

Fig.11. ‘The Balance Restored

sensual masked encounter with a Backgammon board in front of them by andrea alciato

Fig.12. ‘The Backgammon Players’ (2017)

masked female performing cunnilingus on another female wearing red stockings by andrea alciato

Fig.13. ‘Red stockings

older female wearing mourning-clothes jerking off a blind-folded male with a sad couple in the foreground by andrea alciato

Fig.14. ‘In the last room: Behind the Stork Screen

andrea alciato art

Fig.15.

Click HERE for more exciting modern shunga…!!!

Source: Saatchi Art

*A shamisen is a traditional Japanese three-stringed musical instrument.

As the comments below indicate, the opinions about this paintings are rather divided. What do you think?

About the author
Marijn is the founder of shungagallery.com. With more than 20 years of experience within the sensual and erotic art of shunga he is an authority in the genre. During this time he served many customers with complementing their art collection.
Peter
By

Peter

on 09 Nov 2018

A beautiful erotic painting,Golden Robe.

Marijn
By

Marijn

on 09 Nov 2018

You are absolutely right Peter!

steve miller
By

steve miller

on 09 Nov 2018

obvious 20th c fraud

Marijn
By

Marijn

on 09 Nov 2018

How do you mean, Steve?

José Álvarez
By

José Álvarez

on 09 Nov 2018

very poor painting

Marijn
By

Marijn

on 09 Nov 2018

Thanks for your comment José. Why does it not appeal to you?

steve miller
By

steve miller

on 30 Nov 2018

I didn't say I didn't like it. I said it was obviously not from the 1500s, when as you noted the person named Andrea Alciato was active. The pictures are obviously from the 20th century and why they are being associated with some Renaissance Italian jurist is unclear.I think the painting is amusing if crude and a bit cryptic. I prefer the older Japanese paintings on your site, which I find quite interesting.

Marijn
By

Marijn

on 30 Nov 2018

Thanks for your additional explanation Steve.

JB
By

JB

on 12 Aug 2022

Nowhere is it stated that they are from the 1500s. Only that the internet turns up only a same name that date back to the 1500s but little is known about this artist other that s/he is Austrian. So, where is the "fraud"?

P.Brouwer
By

P.Brouwer

on 30 Sep 2019

Beautiful paintings,Extreme erotic.High quality.Not to show every where.Most people live it in their fantasies.

Marijn
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