User:Jahsonic/On the ineffability of censored material in the obscenity trials
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On the ineffability of censored material in the obscenity trials
Nu allongé sur jeté de dentelle[1] (c. 1855) is a photo by Félix-Jacques Moulin.
The photo fits the description given by the American Association of Museums of "a nude woman casting a fetching look over her arm", describing the obsenity trial of Moulin.
However, the trial was held in 1851 according to most sources, when Félix-Jacques Moulin was arrested and fined for publishing photographs which were "so obscene that even to pronounce the titles (...) would be to commit an indecency." So if the date of 1855 (given by Artnet) is correct, it could not have been this picture.
What I find extremely amusing is the fact that "pronouncing the titles" proved to be an indecency. We see this time and time again in the history of 19th century censorship, that in all those trials, the subject to be censored could not be mentioned in court, only paraphrased, because showing the obscene pictures or reading the obscene literature would be a crime in itself. In court, the crudities of literature, painting and printmaking were ineffable.
See also the love that dare not speak its name.
