From Tuesday, the Rijksmuseum will display a condom from around 1830, believed to be made from the blind gut of a sheep. The contraceptive features an erotic image of a nun and three male clerics.
The image shows the nun sitting with her legs spread before the three clerics, who are displaying their genitals. The nun is pointing at one of them. Underneath the scene is written “Voila mon choix” (this is my choice).
According to the museum, this is a parody of both celibacy and the Judgment of Paris from classical antiquity. In that story, the Trojan prince Paris chose the goddess Aphrodite as the most beautiful woman.
The almost two-hundred-year-old contraceptive, according to the museum, represents “both the playful and the serious side of sexual health.” “The pursuit of pleasure stood alongside the fear of STIs, especially syphilis, and unwanted pregnancy.”
According to Joyce Zelen, curator of prints at the Rijksprentenkabinet in the Rijksmuseum, the condom was probably never used. “We suspect it was more of a luxury brothel souvenir and not an actual used condom,” she told the AD.
The condom will be on display until the end of November in the Rijksmuseum along with a number of prints, drawings, and photographs on the theme of prostitution and sexuality.