The debate over nudes is about to reach a climax. Pornhub, the adult video streaming platform, has launched a series of digital "Classic Nudes" tours for six of the world’s leading museums, with the aim of “stimulating the public to visit, explore and fall back in love (or lust) with these cultural institutions”, according to a press release. Admirers of artistic depictions of the human body can either view the works online, or go to the museums in-person and follow a map provided by Pornhub to see the selected masterpieces up-close and very personal.
Every work on the tour has a rather tongue in cheek (ahem) description, which provides some decidedly adult entertainment as well as a bit of education to eager art buffs. Of Botticelli’s Spring hanging in the Uffizi, for example, Pornhub says the artist “painted this for a dude called Lorenzo de Medici to give to his new bride – presumably as a medieval mood starter”. Meanwhile the adult actress and director Asa Akira has recorded audio commentary for selected pieces, such as Ingres’s The Turkish Bath in the Louvre. “Time to ditch those boring self-tour recordings and enjoy every single brushstroke of these erotic masterpieces with me,” Akira says in a statement.
A word of warning, however: The amateur porn acting couple MySweetApple have created short videos for Pornhub’s site inspired by a few key examples at each museum, including Gustave Courbet’s The Origin of the World and Edgar Degas Male Nude, which are impressively art directed but definitely NSFW—or museum galleries.