This book by the German scientist and writer E. Fuchs (1870 1940) is about an eternal theme in world art. For many centuries, artists, poets, and writers have sought to reflect in their work the beauty of the human body, everything connected with sensual love, intimate relationships, and at the same time they exposed and ridiculed (including in caricatures) human vices, excesses, and obscenities. . The book talks about how erotic art was influenced by the morals and customs of different eras, countries and peoples. It covers a huge period from antiquity to the beginning of the 20th century. In Russia, this work has not been republished for 80 years and, although time has corrected some of the author’s judgments, the book still continues to be unsurpassed in the wealth of factual and illustrative material collected. The text of this edition reproduces the 1914 translation, mainly preserving the features of its language and style (the most famous names and surnames are given in modern spelling), captions under the illustrations are left, as a rule, in the form in which they were given by the author. The book includes illustrations not only from the indicated Russian edition, but also reproductions from the German original that were not included in it.