A History of Erotic Depiction

Humans have drawn, carved, fired, painted, and printed the same positions for four thousand years. Every tradition below is tied to the modern catalog entries it first recorded — and to the peoples and regions that made it.

Before the record: the Venus figurines

The oldest erotic artefacts predate any position vocabulary: the Paleolithic Venus figurines — carved stone and ivory bodies with exaggerated breasts, hips, and vulvas, tens of thousands of years old — record fascination with the sexual body long before anyone depicted the sexual act. The story of positions in art begins when couples appear: in the fired clay of Mesopotamia.

  1. 01Old Babylonian erotic plaques

    art tradition

    Mesopotamian workshop tradition · c. 1800 BCE · Babylonian (Mesopotamia) →

    Mass-produced fired-clay plaques from Mesopotamian sites — among the world's oldest explicit couple depictions. The signature motif pairs standing rear entry with the woman bending to drink beer through a straw.

    Positions attested here

    The beer-drinking congress(Standing rear entry (bent over))

  2. 02Turin Erotic Papyrus

    art tradition

    Ramesside workshop, Deir el-Medina · c. 1150 BCE · Egyptian (New Kingdom) →

    The best-known erotic artefact of ancient Egypt: a satirical scroll of twelve vignettes showing exaggerated, acrobatic congress — bent-over and standing entries, a lifted-partner carry — millennia before the modern position catalogue.

    Positions attested here

    Bent-over vignettes(Standing rear entry (bent over))

  3. 03Greek symposium pottery

    art tradition

    Attic and Corinthian vase painters · 6th–4th century BCE · Greek (Archaic–Classical) →

    Red- and black-figure drinking vessels carried explicit scenes into every symposium, and comedy preserved the vernacular the images illustrate: kubda (the bent-over 'three-obol' position) and keles (the 'racehorse' ride).

    Positions attested here

    Keles (the racehorse)(Cowgirl (woman on top))Kubda (the bent-over)(Standing rear entry (bent over))

  4. 04Su Nü Jing (Classic of the Plain Girl)

    manual / literature

    attributed to the Plain Girl dialogues with the Yellow Emperor · c. 2nd century BCE–2nd century CE; preserved in the Japanese Ishimpō (984 CE) · Chinese (Han dynasty tradition) →

    The Nine Ways of the Chinese bedchamber classics — animal-named positions (Dragon, Tiger, Monkey, Cicada, Tortoise, Phoenix, Rabbit, Fish, Crane) — survive through the Ishimpō's medical compilation.

    Positions attested here

    Tiger's Tread(Doggy style)Monkey's Attack(Legs on shoulders)Cranes with Necks Entwined(Lotus)Mounting Tortoise(Mating press)Dragon Turns(Missionary)Clinging Cicada(Prone bone)Fish Linking Scales(Prone cowgirl)Rabbit Licks Its Fur(Reverse cowgirl)Phoenix Soaring(Yawning position)

  5. 05Ars Amatoria

    manual / literature

    Ovid · 2 CE · Roman →

    Ovid's Book III advises positions by figure, most famously the woman-astride 'horse of Hector' (Andromache's mount) — classical Rome's contribution to the named-position record.

    Positions attested here

    The horse of Hector(Cowgirl (woman on top))

  6. 06Pompeian erotic frescoes

    art tradition

    Campanian wall painters · 1st century CE · Roman →

    The lupanar, the Suburban Baths, and private houses of Pompeii preserve Rome's visual position vocabulary. The dominant motif is the woman riding astride — mulier equitans — in both facing and turned (Venus pendula) forms.

    Positions attested here

    Mulier equitans(Cowgirl (woman on top))Venus pendula aversa(Reverse cowgirl)

  7. 07Kama Sutra

    manual / literature

    Vatsyayana · c. 3rd century CE · Indian (Gupta era) →

    The most famous of the Sanskrit kama shastra texts; Book 2 catalogues embraces and congress positions with named forms (bandha).

    Positions attested here

    Purushayita; Bhramara (the bee)(Cowgirl (woman on top))Dhenuka (the congress of the cow)(Doggy style)Auparishtaka (mouth congress)(Fellatio (kneeling))Parshva samputa (the side clasp)(Lateral coital (side face-to-face))Padmasana-derived seated embrace(Lotus)Indranika (Indrani's position)(Mating press)Samputa (the clasping position)(Missionary)Kakila (the congress of the crow)(Sixty-nine (69))Venudaritaka (splitting of a bamboo)(Splitting the bamboo)Sthita (the steadied congress)(Standing face-to-face (leg raised))Avalambitaka (suspended congress)(Suspended congress (standing carry))Piditaka (the pressed position)(Viennese oyster)Jrimbhitaka (the yawning position)(Yawning position)

  8. 08Moche erotic ceramics

    art tradition

    Moche potters, northern Peru · c. 100–800 CE · Moche (pre-Columbian Andes) →

    The Andes' famous sculptural sex pots: thousands of stirrup-spout vessels modelling couples in the round — rear entry above all, side-lying couples on blankets, and oral scenes — the richest pre-Columbian position record.

    Positions attested here

    The rear-entry vessels(Doggy style)The fellatio vessels(Fellatio (kneeling))The lying-couple vessels(Spooning)

  9. 09Dongxuanzi (Master of the Cavern Mystery)

    manual / literature

    attributed to Li Dongxuan · c. 7th century CE · Chinese (Tang dynasty) →

    Tang-era manual enumerating thirty poetic positions — Silkworm Spinning a Cocoon, Mandarin Ducks, Fluttering Butterflies, the Late-Spring Donkey — that shaped East Asian erotic vocabulary.

    Positions attested here

    Fluttering Butterflies(Cowgirl (woman on top))Wild Horse Leaps(Legs on shoulders)Silkworm Spinning a Cocoon(Missionary, legs wrapped)Mandarin Ducks Entwined(Spooning)Late-Spring Donkey(Standing rear entry (bent over))

  10. 10Khajuraho & Konark temple sculpture

    art tradition

    Chandela and Eastern Ganga sculptors · c. 950–1250 CE · Indian (medieval temple tradition) →

    The maithuna panels of Khajuraho and the Konark Sun Temple carve the kama shastra tradition in stone — standing carries, raised-leg unions, and acrobatic group compositions on public temple walls.

    Positions attested here

    Raised-leg maithuna(Ballet dancer (leg on shoulder, standing))Standing maithuna(Standing face-to-face (leg raised))Maithuna standing carry(Suspended congress (standing carry))

  11. 11Ananga Ranga

    manual / literature

    Kalyanamalla · 15th–16th century CE · Indian (late medieval) →

    Late-medieval Indian manual organising positions into classes: uttana (supine), tiryak (side), upavishta (seated), utthita (standing), and vyanta (prone/rear).

    Positions attested here

    Dhenuka-vyanta-bandha(Doggy style)Tiryak-bandha (side class)(Lateral coital (side face-to-face))Vyanta-bandha (prone class)(Prone bone)Utthita-bandha (standing class)(Standing face-to-face (leg raised))

  12. 12The Perfumed Garden of Sensual Delight

    manual / literature

    Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Nafzawi · 15th century CE · Arab–Berber (Maghreb) →

    Tunisian manual whose chapter on the 'manners' of congress names positions such as the Stopperage, Frog Fashion, and Driving the Peg Home (Burton's renderings).

    Positions attested here

    The second manner(Legs on shoulders)El asemeud (the Stopperage)(Mating press)El modefeda (Frog Fashion)(Spider (crab))Driving the Peg Home(Suspended congress (standing carry))

  13. 13I Modi (The Sixteen Postures)

    art tradition

    Giulio Romano, engraved by Raimondi; sonnets by Pietro Aretino · 1524–1527 CE · Italian (Renaissance) →

    Renaissance Europe's notorious position set: sixteen engraved postures suppressed by the Papacy, surviving in fragments and copies with Aretino's sonnets — the West's first printed position catalogue.

    Positions attested here

    The astride posture(Cowgirl (woman on top))The carried posture(Suspended congress (standing carry))

  14. 14Chinese spring-palace albums

    art tradition

    Ming and Qing album painters · 16th–18th century CE · Chinese (Ming–Qing) →

    Painted 'spring pictures' (chungong hua) circulated as albums of garden and chamber scenes, illustrating the classical manuals' positions — chair-seated unions are a recurring signature.

    Positions attested here

    The chair scene(Face-off (chair straddle))

  15. 15Shijūhatte (the Forty-Eight Techniques)

    manual / literature

    Edo-period pleasure-quarter tradition · 17th–19th century CE · Japanese (Edo period) →

    The canonical 48 named positions of Edo Japan, styled after sumo technique names and depicted throughout shunga art; modern Japanese vernacular (e.g. ekiben) continues the naming tradition.

    Positions attested here

    Ekiben (the station lunchbox)(Ekiben (facing-away carry))Taimen-zai (face-to-face seat)(Face-off (chair straddle))Matsuba-kuzushi (scattered pine needles)(Pretzel (pretzel dip))Haimen-zai (rear-facing seat)(Seated rear entry (lap ride))

  16. 16Shunga woodblock prints

    art tradition

    Ukiyo-e masters (Utamaro, Hokusai, Kunisada) · 17th–19th century CE · Japanese (Edo period) →

    Edo Japan's woodblock erotica — printed by the same masters as the ukiyo-e landscape canon — depicts the 48 techniques in vivid detail and made compositions like the interleaved matsuba famous far beyond Japan.

    Positions attested here

    Rear-entry prints(Doggy style)Mutual-oral prints(Sixty-nine (69))

  17. 17Persian & Mughal erotic miniatures

    art tradition

    Safavid, Qajar and Mughal court ateliers · 16th–19th century CE · Persian & Mughal →

    Court albums from Persia and Mughal India set couples on carpets and cushions — seated embraces and reclined, legs-raised unions painted with the same refinement as any court portrait.

    Positions attested here

    The cushion embrace(Lotus)The reclined union(Yawning position)

Into the lens era

Photography collapsed the distance between depiction and record: from the daguerreotype nudes of the 1840s through the French postcard, the stag film, and the modern industry, the positions stopped needing names carved in stone or printed from woodblocks — but the names travelled with them. The modern catalog this page belongs to is the same project the Babylonian plaque-makers started: a vocabulary for the body's repertoire, now with the geometry attached.

Part of the Erotic Pose Catalog open dataset — the provenance layer ships as its own config (CC BY 4.0).