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pects, we cannot disconnect ourselves from the construction history of our common identity. The deadly sins and, even more so, the corresponding antago- nistic virtues are still a current artistic theme and a valid and reiterative ‘tool’ in the arduous process of improving humani- ty’s vices. Greed has brought us to the great crisis of the West- ern world. Only its correspond- ing virtue, generosity, can repair the mess that the people are both victims of and complicit in. Inherent to human nature, the cardinal sin, just as with virtue, forms a part of out history, and as such is a theme of artistic representation common to all periods and geographical zones throughout the world. Lust Its opposite virtue is chastity, a voluntary behaviour characterised by moderation and an ap- propriate and ever-measured regulation of any attitudes that may unleash acts of a sexual nature or that solicit the pleas- ures of the flesh, responding to religious or social mores. According to the cultural precepts derived from Christianity, it is fulfilled by abstinence when unmarried or fidelity in mar- riage. Its antithesis, lust (cognate with luxury, from the Latin luxus : abundance, exuberance) is defined as an unordered, uncontrollable sexual appetite. The Apostolic and Roman Catholic Church considers it a sin, and Hinduism includes it in their five evils. Throughout history, many religions have condemned or discouraged lust to a larger or lesser degree. The demon related to lust is Asmodeus according to the study of the different relationships between demons, as well as the sins they foster, written by Peter Binsfeld in 1589. This particular demon fell in love with Sarah, daughter of Rachel, in the Book of Tobit, and killed each of her seven husbands before the marriage could be consummated. The eighth hus- band, Tobias, son of Tobit was helped by the Archangel Rap- hael to chase Asmodeus to Egypt and to get rid of him forev- er. Other demoniacal groups that favoured lustful behaviour, such as the incubi , male spirits that had sexual relations with women as they slept (see The Nightmare , 1781, by Füssli) and the succubae , female spirits – such as Lilith, the lover of Asmodeus – who had sexual relations with sleeping men. Many mythological deities are connected to lust, and almost all of them are related with love and fertility. Aphrodite, Eros, Dionysus, Priapus, Pan or Hedone in Greek mythology, Ve- nus, Bes, Bacchus or Voluptas in Roman mythology, Anuket in the Egyptian pantheon or Kâmadeva in the Hindu. The Ori- gin of the World or Sleep by Courbet (1819-1877) shows us the reality of the theme we are investigating. The sexual urge is a biological response common to the whole of the animal. All pleasure could be considered a sin. Humans have dictat- ed laws to create a model of cohabitation that, for better or for worse, has worked for millennia. In various periods of time, civil society has drawn more or less permissive lines around the limits of sin. The concept of privacy or inti- macy turns lust into a topic that can be easily hidden for society, which means that a double moral standard can be tolerated. This is impos- sible for believers, since nothing can be hidden from the eyes of God. Lust is the sin that makes us commit the so-called sins of the flesh. Many are the temptations and the strength require to not succumb may well flag. We could always hope for the forgiveness of the third parties involved, should they exist, and the eternal forgive- ness of god. Nowadays, sexual compulsions or addictions are considered part of lust, as are adultery, paedophilia, por- nography, paraphilia and rape. The great masters have contributed to the representation of vice and virtue by referring directly to the sin directly, or de- picting the scene away from Christian morality. From the first artistic depictions of the representation of lust during the time of the classical empires such as the Etrus- can, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Ottoman, Aztec, Inca or Chi- nese empires – to name a few – to the current state of being officially liberated of sexual taboos, we can see some artistic examples that depict a lack of sexual restraint and even abuse. At the beginning of the 20th century an unbridling of sexual behaviour took place, and along with it, a change in the concept of lust. Perhaps the most relevant work of this trend is the work of the Austrian Egon Schiele (1880-1918), who completed countless portraits. I believe that this will carry on being a recurring theme for various types of artistic expression, and will contribute their representation to a greater human development in some cases and a greater decadence in others. In these themes, individual subjectivity and unreliable collective objectivity will leave their mark on the periodic rights and wrongs that will take place. The evolution of science and technology causes changes in the perception of reality, which will lead people to believe in various paradigms as dogma of contemporary faith. Contemporary artists depict that themes that we are concerned with by contextualising and adapting them to cur- rent environments: for example, Banksy’s Naked Man , Made in Heaven by Jeff Koons and Ilona Staller –better known as Cicciolina , Marlene Dumas’s Couples or Andrés Serrano’s pictures for The History of Sex , amongst many others. Rembrandt. El arcángel Rafael alejándose de la familia de Tobías/ The Archangel Raphael leaving Tobit and his family , 1637. © Museo del Louvre, París. 117