Sacred meets profane: The erotic art of Saturno Butto

The paintings of Saturno Butto are not for everyone; they are rife with dark erotic mysticism and heavy Catholic themes, and combine a world of wantonly obscene medical fetish with BDSM relationship scenarios — things that alone would be intense, but together will surely strike a never, somewhere. Which, I think, makes them at turns erotic, disturbing, and like all complex art, important. Zoetic Ebb (Opium Fields) sums up the work of Saturno Butto perfectly saying:

Cult painter Saturno Butto portrays fetish alongside religious ritual, painstakingly executed in oil by a classically-trained hand. Here forceps and gags are sacred, eating, masturbation and bondage are divine ceremonies and provocative harlots are saints. Butto’s use of fetish tools as religious objects and vice versa moves beyond simple shock value; he elevates the themes that classic religious painting deemed taboo, undressing martyrs and placing pleasure on its rightful throne. Gold and vermillion, royalty and blood, ecstasy and violence converge here to build shrines to beauty, seduction and power all the while demolishing altars of dogma.

See much more in this Opium Fields post (thanks, Praemedia).