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Arquitectura
y sexualidad
Consorcio del Centro de Cultura Diseño gráfico de la exposición Y la colaboración del Servicio de
Contemporánea de Barcelona Dani Rubio Arauna comunicación y recursos externos, de los
con la colaboración de Servicios administrativos y generales, del
Presidenta Pol Pintó CCCBLab, del CCCB Educación y del Centro
Mercè Conesa Pagès Pablo Estarriaga de documentación y debate del CCCB.
Una producción de: Con la colaboración de: Medios colaboradores: El CCCB es un consorcio de:
20
Vigilar y castigar, 36
vigilar y disfrutar. ¿Quién
era Jeremy Bentham?
Adélaïde de Caters y Rosa Ferré
La novela libertina. 82
Lugar de fantasía(s)
Marie-Françoise Quignard
Catalogación 150
los lavaderos, los secaderos con propiedades re- bilidad perfecta: el ojo del Arquitecto está en el
paradoras de los cuerpos. Visto en perspectiva, el centro de los placeres que controla, no para cas-
edificio disimula su forma fálica que solo se revela tigar sino para gozar. El círculo pone los placeres
en planta,FIG. 17 y proyecta sobre el lugar una aparien- al alcance del ojo, que no debe encontrar ningún
cia de apacibilidad: «La serenidad de estos muros obstáculo.12 FIG. 1
oculta la agitación del interior».10 Cuando elabora el plan narrativo de su
Las formas fálicas de los dos proyectos novela, Les journées de Florbelle ou La Nature dé-
de Ledoux se inscriben en una línea iniciada por voilée, en 1804, Sade imagina una red de treinta y
Piranesi para el templo de la virilidad dedicado a dos casas públicas en París.13 El mismo Sade dibu-
Augusto en el Campo de Marte. Estas referencias jó tres bocetos de esta institución de libertinaje.14
fueron heredadas de la Antigüedad, que desde el Estos dibujos revelan la importancia de la organi-
Renacimiento ocupa un lugar importante en la zación del espacio como base para su relato.
construcción de la iconografía erótica. El Sueño de En la tercera versión de su institución,
Polífilo, búsqueda y sueño amoroso representado Sade también adopta una forma radioconcéntri-
en arquitecturas y paisajes antiguos, recupera el ca, próxima a la segunda versión del plan de las
simbolismo y los ritos de los «amores de los dioses» Salinas de Ledoux, como observa Alexandre Stroev.
como en El sacrificio de un asno a Príapo.FIG. 18 Las El espacio está dividido en tres partes: la primera
primeras excavaciones arqueológicas en las inme- destinada a la administración (la casa del director);
diaciones del Vesubio y luego en Pompeya en 1763 la segunda a los alojamientos de las víctimas (en
renuevan el interés por aquella iconografía. En los Ledoux los obreros); la tercera a los suplicios (en
yacimientos se encuentran numerosos falos, escul- Ledoux la fábrica).
pidos en la calle o que se llevaban en collar, para Los suplicios están distribuidos en seis
orientarse o como amuletos para la buena suerte. galerías radiales con treinta y seis gabinetes cada
Estos descubrimientos vuelven a dar relevancia una, y ya no en dos galerías paralelas y semicircula-
al dios Príapo, símbolo de virilidad y de fertilidad, res, como en la versión anterior. Una avenida rodea
como lo demuestran El triunfo del falo FIG. 2 grabado el edificio. Una puerta de entrada, dos de salida que
anónimamente a partir de un dibujo de Francesco dan al cementerio, la única salida posible.FIG. 20
Salviati del siglo xvi, o la obra priápica de Dominique El gabinete o salón de las reuniones del
Vivant Denon, diplomático, autor del maravilloso castillo de Silling en Las 120 jornadas de Sodoma
relato libertino Sin mañana, arqueólogo y director recurre a la misma forma en semicírculo. Sade
del futuro Louvre. La estampa más conocida de la organiza el espacio como un anfiteatro alrededor
serie representa un Falo fenomenal a la manera de de un trono elevado sobre unos escalones. Los
un monumento varado, como Gulliver en la playa de elementos y sujetos de lujuria están distribuidos
Lilliput.FIG. 19 Otra, El rey Falo enfermo y derrotado alrededor del trono enmarcado por dos columnas
recibe a sus médicos, atestigua las enfermedades de castigo. Su presencia simboliza la subordinación,
venéreas de la época. El tema retorna como un factor importante en la psicología de los placeres,
leitmotiv de manera humorística e incluso cari- y «ritualiza» el espacio a la manera de una logia
caturesca al final del reinado de María Antonieta, masónica. Sade, que apreciaba las artes del tea-
como en los retratos de Les Fouteries chantantes tro, completa minuciosamente la puesta en escena
ou les récréations priapiques des aristocrates en ofreciendo toda clase de detalles sobre las telas,
vie (1791). los colores y la luz.
Más allá de la impronta priápica, lo ca-
racterístico en Ledoux es la obsesión por la
transparencia y la visibilidad. La ciudad ideal de
10 Ibid. 11 El proyecto de las Salinas aprobado por Luis XV
Chaux en la que quería depurar las costumbres justo antes de su muerte, en 1774, es anterior al Panóptico.
adopta una configuración concéntrica cercana Bentham expone su proyecto por primera vez en una
al sistema de vigilancia propuesto por el filósofo carta de 1786 y sus ideas serán publicadas en francés en
1791. 12 Véase María José Bueno, «Le Panopticon érotique
Jeremy Bentham en su Panopticon. En el centro
11
de Ledoux», Dix-huitième siècle, vol. 22, 1990. 13 El doctor
de la forma circular se halla la casa del director, Duehren señala a propósito del esquema de Les Journées
verdadero ojo de buey que lo controla todo. Los de Florbelle: «en el tercer tomo se encuentra un proyecto
de establecimiento de treinta y dos casas de placer en
alojamientos de los trabajadores se distribuyen París». El manuscrito se destruye en 1807. 14 Dos versiones
por la periferia, como las celdas en el panóptico. El se encuentran en el Museo Histórico de Estado de Moscú;
fantasma de una visibilidad perfecta está resumi- la tercera, que estuvo mucho tiempo en poder de la familia
Sade, fue vendida recientemente. Véase Alexandre Stroev,
do en el dibujo del ojo cuya pupila refleja el teatro «Des dessins inédits du Marquis de Sade», Dix-huitième
de Besançon, obra de Ledoux que ofrece una visi- siècle, vol. 32, 2000.
FIG. 18 Anónimo italiano, Sacrificio de Príapo,
en Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Aldus
Manutius, Venecia c. 1499, estampa 70.
Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid
Carlo Mollino (Turín, 1905—1973) fue un a recubrir incluso el techo: auténticos espacios su-
arquitecto y profesor universitario que cultivó di- rrealistas. La casa para el señor Devalle le ofrece el
versas disciplinas, a cual más distinta y alejada de pretexto para soberbias obras fotográficas magis-
su profesión. tralmente impresas en blanco y negro. Uno de sus
Conocía la fotografía desde la infancia, ya títulos, La casa del olvido, nos revela la intención
que su padre había construido en los primeros años del artista de «abandonar» el mundo para hallar en
del siglo xx una cámara oscura en la casa familiar. el inconsciente la fuente de un lenguaje auténtico y
Proyectará, respectivamente en los años trein- propio. La Casa Miller constituye en cambio su es-
ta, cincuenta y sesenta, tres interiores dedicados tudio fotográfico, disimulado como vivienda, donde
exclusivamente a estudios fotográficos. En 1943 es- trabajará como artista fotógrafo utilizando un re-
cribe un importante tratado de historia y de crítica pertorio de objetos surrealistas (moldes de yeso de
fotográfica, Il messaggio dalla camera oscura. manos, pies, un capitel, una cabeza de caballo) que
En los años treinta compila en un volumen le permiten realizar fotografías tituladas Sueño,
su prolífica producción de diagramas nítidos e imá- Sibila, Génesis, Viaje, En el espejo, Cuentos para
genes fotográficas en el que expone un innovador mayores. En estas imágenes los desnudos están
tratado de ingeniería del esquí. rigurosamente excluidos y el núcleo de estas obras
En los años cincuenta se dedica al automo- radica en un deseo particular: la exploración y la
vilismo y diseña el Bisiluro, un coche de carreras en representación del propio mensaje a través de una
el que destaca su carrocería aerodinámica. En su «soñadora» lectura freudiana del yo. ¿Qué indica-
silueta se ve el primer radiador aerodinámico, casi ción encontramos cuando contemplamos el espejo
horizontal, de la historia del automovilismo. El ve- fotográfico de un Mollino de treinta años? Un cuen-
hículo participó en las 24 horas de Le Mans de 1955. to: en la fotografía titulada Cuentos para mayores
Al mismo tiempo, y hasta su muerte, se aparece una mujer bellísima entre los batientes de
preocupa por la aeronáutica, patenta elementos una puerta apenas entreabierta.FIG. 84 El rostro está
mecánicos y proyecta un avión para la alta acro- velado, el cuerpo forrado de seda. Al fondo referen-
bacia. En 1962 es reconocido oficialmente entre los tes arqueológicos: un pie humano, el fragmento de
mejores pilotos acrobáticos italianos. una escultura griega, una cabeza de caballo.
La literatura no le resulta indiferente, en ¿En qué cuento desearía vivir nuestro
el año 1933 publica en la revista de arquitectura arquitecto? Nos lo revela Aristófanes, que en El
Casabella, la novela autobiográfica «Vita di Oberon», banquete de Platón describe al hombre primigenio
y en 1936 aparece «L’amante del Duca», una narra- como una criatura perfecta, casi divina, que con-
ción surrealista, en la revista literaria Il Selvaggio. tiene en sí misma los dos sexos. La envidia de esta
Los ocho edificios relevantes realizados a perfección lleva a Zeus a cortar al hombre por la
lo largo de su carrera profesional constituyen otros mitad, condenándolo y obligándole a la búsqueda
tantos documentos de su capacidad de expresión constante de la mitad perdida para recomponerse
arquitectónica en una síntesis singular entre in- y volver a encontrar el éxtasis existencial.
geniería y abstracción artística. El edificio de la Al llegar a la cincuentena, Mollino afina
Società Ippica Torinese (1940) muestra cómo se han el proyecto fotográfico-filosófico de su vida, su
fundido instancias surrealistas y metafísicas con su cuento, y realiza entre 1954 y 1968 dos interiores
planteamiento netamente racionalista, obteniendo en los que retratará durante más de veinte años a
unos resultados que hoy podríamos calificar de pro- modelos a menudo desnudas, cuyos cuerpos están
to-posmodernos. «amueblados» con vestidos, zapatos, joyas y pelu-
Sus muebles, siempre realizados en ejem- cas, de su propiedad.FIGS. 87—94 Es intuitivo leer este
plares únicos (constituyen expresiones y no diseños trabajo fotográfico como una pulsión erótica tradu-
industriales), van desde los trabajos en madera cida en expresión artística, pero ninguna de estas
tallada hasta los muebles hechos en contrachapa- miles de imágenes lleva título, ni será expuesta ni
do curvado continuo, desde las patentes técnicas utilizada: un verdadero misterio, incrementado por
para lámparas hasta virtuosismos constructivos muchos y muy hábiles retoques a las impresiones
en metal, y más cosas todavía. fotográficas, y por tanto un increíble malgasto de
Entre los nueve interiores realizados a lo tiempo, inexplicable para un hombre que nunca en
largo de su carrera, la Casa Miller,FIG. 85 1936, y la su vida se dedicó a perder el tiempo.
Casa Devalle,FIG. 86 1939, parecen lugares oníricos, El «deseo» es el tema de esta exposición y
herméticos, arquitecturas irreales de paredes Mollino participa en ella mostrándonos el más sofis-
agujereadas por grandes espejos, convertidas en ticado de los inconscientes –pero no para él– deseos
cortinajes o piezas de tela pespunteadas que llegan humanos: recrear, aquí simbólicamente a través
FIG. 84 Carlo Mollino, Cuentos para FIG. 85 Carlo Mollino, Casa Miller, Turín, 1936.
mayores, 1939. Politecnico di Torino, Archivo de la Biblioteca
Museo Casa Mollino, Turín Roberto Gabetti, Fondo Carlo Mollino
El interior total:
la arquitectura Playboy
1953—1979
FIGS. 102 y 103 Playboy Townhouse, en Playboy,
mayo de 1962
Architecture
and Sexuality
161
abundant information about places of debauchery. He used society and generate happiness, he proposed a new sexual ethic
the establishments he frequented as models for his stories. and independence of the senses.
The Society of the Friends of Crime in Juliette was inspired by Ledoux set out these views in his treatise L’ archi-
the pornological clubs, secret, mysterious places that brought tecture considérée sous le rapport de l’art, des mœurs et de
together amateurs and connoisseurs of sensual pleasure and la législation, the first volume of which was published in 1804,
debauchery to debate the subject and experiment with the the- two years before his death. Unlike the architectural draftsman
ories. Also in Juliette we repeatedly find the establishments of Jean-Jacques Lequeu with whom he is often associated, or the
Gourdan and also of Duvergier, a famous bawd of the time with architect Etienne-Louis Boullée— both men known for their
police backing, who kept a brothel of women and another of utopian and visionary projects—Ledoux enjoyed the favour of
men. The luxurious houses on the outskirts of Paris were set in the Ancien Régime. A student of the famous architecture pro-
gardens which, in some cases, were used to raise turkeys and fessor Jacques-François Blondel, he worked successfully for
animals for zoophilic pleasures. the aristocracy and the élite. A protégé of Madame du Barry
As opposed to the excesses and disorder of the cap- and favourite of Louis XVI for whom he designed the Pavillon
ital, Restif de La Bretonne imagined an ideal brothel to protect de Louveciennes, he received commissions for public buildings.
the health of clients and prostitutes. In The Pornographer, un- The revolution put an end to his projects and his career. Ledoux
der the cover of a fictional correspondence, he presents his was incarcerated and narrowly escaped the guillotine. It is
proposal for the reform of prostitution. The idea consists in necessary to place the man and his work in the context of the
bringing together prostitutes in a strictly regulated establish- Enlightenment to comprehend the ambiguity of his discourse.
ment, the Pornognomonia (rule of centres of libertinage). “The On the one hand, he was heir to the aristocratic splendour of
inevitable consequence of applying a rule such as this would be the Ancien Régime; on the other, he represented the aspiration
the removal of the virus,” explains Restif. These houses, which to a new social contract.8
he calls parthénions, from the Greek “houses for young vir- One of the houses of pleasure imagined by Ledoux
gins”, were located in remote parts of the city. In keeping with was situated outside the centre of Paris, in Montmartre, occu-
the typologies of the time, he imagined large courtyards with pying a 200 m2 plot with a tower at each corner. Paradoxically,
discreet entrances and galleries overlooking gardens. The win- the floor plan resembles that of his prison project for the city
dows had blinds to allow people to see without being seen. The of Aix-en-Provence (1783-1785). In other words, Ledoux used
prostitutes were distributed according to age and beauty in the same spatial layout for two institutions with opposing pro-
six corridors: grammes: punishment and pleasure.
Rising above the square structure was a circular
“Tickets. There will be different tickets, according to degrees gallery, the organising principle for a structure consisting
of youth and beauty. The prostitutes will be accommodated in of 12 pavilions and a phallus-shaped building which housed a
163 Sexual Utopies
sequence of salons, the dining room and antechambers for pre- morals adopted a concentric layout, similar to the surveillance
ambles. Ledoux established a kind of initiation rite. Initiates system proposed by the philosopher Jeremy Bentham in his
had to climb the hill of Montmartre and then pass through dif- Panopticon.11 At the centre of the circular form stands the
ferent spaces as they prepared for pleasure.FIG. 15 director’s house, a bull’s eye that monitors everything. The
The Oikema, the other house of pleasure imagined workers’ dwellings are arranged around the outside, like the
by Ledoux, was intended for the ideal society of Salines de cells in the Panopticon. This fantasy of perfect visibility is
Chaux, far from the corrupt city. In order to reach this utopia summarised in the drawing of an eye, whose pupil reflects the
of happiness, the traveller sets out on a long road, a kind of theatre of Besançon, a work by Ledoux offering perfect visibili-
dreamlike walk taking him through a romantic landscape in the ty: the eye of the Architect is at the centre of the pleasures he
style of Rousseau. After crossing the immense forest of Chaux controls but in this case the aim is not to punish but to gratify.
and the river, the traveller reaches the Valley of Love and en- The circle makes the pleasures visible to the eye, which must
ters the city through the grotto-shaped portico. encounter no obstacles.12 FIG. 1
The Oikema or Fragments of a Greek temple is part While working on the narrative plan of his novel,
of this journey of initiation. The architectural programme Les journées de Florbelle ou La Nature dévoilée, in 1804 Sade
should moderate the passions and prepare for nuptials and imagined a network of 32 maisons publiques in Paris.13 Sade
participation in the purification of habits. As with other so- himself drew three sketches of this institution of libertinage.14
cial buildings, Ledoux situates the Oikema outside the city, in These drawings reveal the importance of the organisation of
a landscape “of seductive prestige” that prepares the senses. space in the staging of his narrative.
FIG. 16
The initially virtuous and moralising discourse incorpo- For the third version of his institution Sade, too,
rates a veritable apologia for pleasure: “Where am I? Pleasure adopted a radio-concentric form, similar to the second version of
radiates its light and the empire of voluptuousness rules these the floor plan of Ledoux’s salt works, as Alexandre Stroev points
charming places, in the dawn of desire, which extends its rays out. The space is divided into three parts: the first for adminis-
over a privileged land.” 9 tration (the director’s house); the second for accommodation of
The Greek term Oikema means house, abode, tem- the victims (in Ledoux’s case, the workers); the third for torture
ple, place of debauchery. Ledoux does not specify the exact (in Ledoux’s plan, the factory).
meaning of the term in words but the phallic shape he gives to The tortures were organised in six radial galler-
the floor plan leaves no room for doubt. On the ground floor ies, each comprising 36 boudoirs, rather than the two parallel
are the parlours, a long gallery that distributes the cells and semi-circular galleries envisaged in the previous version. A path
leads to an oval salon; in the basement, the baths, the fer- ran around the building. There was one entrance doorway, and two
ruginous waters, places for washing and drying rooms with exits to the cemetery, the only possible way out.
properties that restore the body. Seen in perspective, the The cabinet or narrative room at the Château de Silling
building conceals its phallic form, which is only apparent in the in The 120 Days of Sodom also adopts the semi-circular form. Sade
floor planFIG. 17 and gives the place a semblance of calm: “The organises the space as an amphitheatre around a throne raised
serenity of these walls conceals the turmoil within.” 10 on steps. The elements and the objects of lust are distributed
The phallic forms of Ledoux’s two projects can be around the throne, flanked by two columns for chastisement.
seen as part of a tradition begun by Piranesi with the temple of Their presence symbolises subordination, an important factor
virility dedicated to Augustus in the Field of Mars. These refer- in the psychology of pleasure, and “ritualises” the space like a
ences handed down from Antiquity had, since the Renaissance, Masonic lodge. Sade, who was fond of the theatrical arts, meticu-
played an important place in the construction of erotic image- lously completed the setting with all manner of specifications as
ry. The Dream of Poliphilus, an amorous quest and vision set in to fabric, colour and lighting.
ancient architecture and landscapes, recovers the symbolism Every evening, at the same time, for four months, a
and rites of the “love affairs of the gods”, as in The Sacrifice narrator would take her place on the throne and begin the re-
of the Ass to Priapus.FIG. 18 The first archaeological excavations cital of perversions. The four libertines were installed on the
around Vesuvius and then Pompeii as of 1763 led to a renewed ottomans in their respective niches, at the same distance from
interest in this iconography. Numerous phalluses, from point- the throne so as not to miss a word. The semicircle ensured
ers sculpted in the street to pendants deemed to be good-luck the pleasure of the eyes, but also of the ears. The “enthroned”
charms were found in these sites. These discoveries reinstated narration occupies a central place in Sade. Its role is to inflame
the god Priapus, a symbol of virility and fertility, as shown by the imagination of the four libertines who may then perform
The Triumph of the Phallus FIG. 2 engraved anonymously after the perversions on the ottomans in full view of the others or
a 16th-century drawing by Francesco Salviati, or the priapic withdraw to the secret cabinets.FIG. 21
work of Dominique Vivant Denon, diplomat, author of the Sade clearly defines the space reserved for visibility
marvellous libertine novel No Tomorrow, archaeologist and and invisibility. No voyeurism for him; everyone took part in the
director of the future Louvres. The best-known print in the show, though sexual enjoyment was the privilege of the liber-
collection represents a Phallus phénoménal, a stranded mon- tines, to whom the others submitted. The actors and spectators
ument, like Gulliver on the beach of Lilliput.FIG. 19 Another, Le switched roles and places, and no part of the bodies or the space
roi Phallus malade et défait reçoit ses médecins, attests to remained hidden.15 Adjacent to these theatrical spaces where
the venereal diseases of the time. The theme returned as a hu- everything is seen and everything said, Sade arranged areas of
morous and even caricatural leitmotif at the end of the reign of shadow and silence to which the reader does not have access. In
Marie-Antoinette in the form of the portraits in Les Fouteries these secret cabinets adjoining the niches of the libertines in The
chantantes ou les récréations priapiques des aristocrates en 120 Days of Sodom and which also exist in Juliette,16 imagination
vie (1791). alone can enter and prolong the unutterable.
Beyond the priapic imprint, Ledoux’s projects are The architectures invented by Sade embody the fiction
characterised by an obsession with transparency and visi- and resist any system of representation. Sade gives abundant in-
bility. The ideal city of Chaux with which he aspired to purify formation about the places but they remain fragmented and defy
164 1,000 m2 of desire
the “construction” of the space. Sade himself explains these laws New York 1968. 17 See also the underground spaces, catacombs and
of narration at the end of the introduction to the 120 Days of other topoi of the English Gothic novel adopted by Sade. 18 Marquis de Sade,
Sodom, when he speaks of a space erected for the most extreme The 120 Days of Sodom, Arrow or the School of Libertinage,
passions. This is none other than the dungeon, a place that per- London 1990. 19 Ibid.
sists today in the imaginary and in sadomasochistic practices.17
“But depravity, cruelty, disgust, infamy, all those pas-
sions anticipated or experienced, had erected another locality
whereof it is a matter of urgency that we give a sketch […] a spiral Watch and Punish, Watch and Enjoy:
stairway, very narrow and very steep, whose three hundred steps Who Was Jeremy Bentham?
could convey you down into the bowels of the earth, to a kind of Adélaïde de Caters and Rosa Ferré
vaulted dungeon, closed by triple doors of iron, and in which was
displayed everything the crudest art and the most refined bar- “To think about sex”, Jeremy Bentham wrote in
barity could invent of the most atrocious, as much for gripping 1785, is to consider “the greatest, and perhaps the only real
one with terror as for proceeding to horrors. And there below, pleasures of mankind” and this must therefore become “the
what tranquillity!”18 subject of greatest interest to mortal men.”1 This was certainly
Reclusion and tranquillity are vital to libertinage in true of Bentham (1748–1832), the English thinker and political
Sade. Libertines must undertake a long journey through the Black reformer, mainly known as the inventor of the doctrine of util-
Forest, passing through all manner of difficulties and barriers be- itarianism and as a theoretician of legal positivism. However,
fore reaching the Château de Silling. The castle is protected by since Bentham feared that his contemporaries would not un-
several walls, both natural and artificial. Once they have entered, derstand him, most of his well-argued texts in favour of sexual
all the doors—even the smallest exit—are walled up and “they freedom and advocating the emancipation of women and de-
[settle] down comfortably inside”.19 “A world isolated from the criminalisation of homosexuality were not published in his
world”, as Ledoux said, but in the negative. lifetime. Moreover, his publishers also kept the texts hidden
after his death.
1 See the article by Dr Eugen Duehren, “La prostitution et la vie sexuelle au Bentham was a highly influential social reformer in
18e siècle” (1901), published in Obliques Sade, No. 12-13, 1977. See also the his time. He advocated universal suffrage, separation of church
important work by Dr Duehren, Le marquis de Sade et son temps. Eugen and state, transformation of institutions, from hospitals to
Duehren is the pseudonym of Iwan Bloch, the famous sexologist who prisons, abolition of slavery, as well as theorising about bureau-
published The 120 Days of Sodom in 1904. 2 Artificial phalluses were used in cracy and even taking an interest in animal rights. He acted as
Antiquity and came back into vogue in the 18th century, in France and also in advisor to many liberal governments in Europe and America,
Germany. 3 Guillaume Apollinaire, introduction to L’œuvre du marquis de and his thinking has had a crucial influence in legal reform and
Sade, Bibliothèque des Curieux, Paris 1909. “The Marquis de Sade, the freest public administrations in modern society. However, it was not
spirit who ever lived, had particular ideas about women and wanted them to until the late 20th century that researchers showed that he
be as free as men.” 4 Nicolas Edme Restif de la Bretonne, Le Palais-Royal, also produced a radical critique of society from the standpoint
1790. 5 Nicolas Edme Restif de La Bretonne, Le Pornographe ou idées d’un of sexuality.2
honnête homme sur un projet de règlement pour les prostituées propre à Bentham criticised the patriarchal society and
prévenir le malheur qu’occasionne le publicisme des femmes (1769). In maintained that, if the social inequality of women stemmed
English: “The Pornographer” in Michel Delon and Marilyn Yalom (eds.), The from their intellectual inferiority, this inferiority was not de-
Libertine: The Art of Love in Eighteenth-Century France, Abbeville Press, termined by nature but by a lack of education. He condemned
New York 2013. 6 The book was in Sade’s library. Letter from the Marquis to the fact that the legislation of the time was based more on prej-
his wife, in 1783, while he was incarcerated in Vincennes: “Above all buy udice than evidence and, to him, reforming morals meant that
nothing by that Restif, in God’s name! He’s a vulgar and smug author of reforming legislation and changing living conditions to ensure
chapbooks, and it is inconceivable that you might send me something of his.” the happiness of women was as important as ensuring the hap-
7 Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, L’architecture considérée sous le rapport de l’art, piness of men. During this period, when women were regarded
des mœurs et de la législation (1804). Ledoux always wrote architect with a as being little better than servants or objects, he proposed they
capital A. 8 See the monographs about Claude-Nicolas Ledoux by Michel should be given the dignity of free individuals and provided with
Gallet and Anthony Vidler. 9 Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, L’architecture the necessary tools to achieve this: education and the vote. He
considérée sous le rapport de l’art, des mœurs et de la législation (1804). even suggested that men should share in household chores.
10 Ibid. 11 The project for the works approved by Louis XV just before his Like many other philosophers of his time, when
death in 1774 is prior to the Panopticon. Bentham set forth his project for faced with the repression and discipline characteristic of the
the first time in a letter dated 1786 and his ideas were published in French in Christian tradition, Bentham defended the benefits of econom-
1791. 12 See Maria José Bueno, “Le Panopticon érotique de Ledoux”, Revue ic and libidinal consumption: the enjoyment of worldly appetites
Dix-huitième, Vol. 22, 1990. 13 Dr Duehren comments on the subject of an and the liberty of natural passions. But he went much further
outline of Journées de Florbelle: volume three contained a project to than the rest. He was appalled by the fact that in England at
establish 32 pleasure houses in Paris. The manuscript was destroyed in 1807. the time it was common practice to destroy the lives of homo-
14 Two versions are kept in the State History Museum in Moscow; the third, sexuals by subjecting them to public disgrace, sending them
which remained for a long time in the Sade family, was recently sold. See into exile and, in many cases, even executing them. He wrote
Alexandre Stroev, “Des dessins inédits du Marquis de Sade”, Dix-huitième the first essay in English advocating the decriminalisation of
Siècle, Vol. 32, 2000. 15 “It is this exposure without reserve, this exhibition homosexuality.3 He pointed out that sodomy was evidently
without measure, that defines the space of the obscene.” See Marcel Hénaff, pleasurable to its participants, and that there was no harm
“Tout dire ou l’encyclopédie de l’excès”, Obliques Sade, No. 12-13, 1977. whatsoever in a relationship between two consenting people of
16 “Near the public pleasure hall are the secret cabinets to which one may the same sex. The fact that the custom was abhorrent to the
repair in order to indulge, in private, in all manner of the debaucheries of majority of the community did not justify their persecution and
libertinage”, Marquis de Sade, Juliette, Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press, it was just a question of “taste”. He believed that, “To destroy