The first one is mild enough, the second below the fold. Interestingly enough, the explicit one is from the 1500s. Click for full size.
Love In A Tub or A Cure for a Cold, Thomas Rowlandson, Etching, 1802. Subject: Foot Baths, Sexual Behaviour, Coryza.
Three Women in the Bath, Hans Sebald Beham, Engraving, 1548. Subject: Public Baths, Sexual Behaviour.
The one from 1548 being more explicit isn’t very surprising. Medieval Europe wasn’t very prudish at all, and those attitudes only really started to change with the Reformation. It’s the late 1800s that were ultra-prudish, even going as far as rewriting history to remove “objectionable” content, which is where our idea that all of history was equally prudish comes from, when it really wasn’t.
Wow. That bum-and-boobs pose is really old.
And depillating!
MY EYES! MY EYES!
Dauphni, yes I know, but all people aren’t as happily immersed in Medieval history as I am. :)
Chigau, yes, it most certainly is. At least she isn’t wasp-waisted!
Why are they wearing their hats in the bath?
The woman poised to get into the bath is not wearing a hat, she just has her hair braided. As for the others, well, you have to keep your head covered -- if it isn’t, you lose a lot of body heat! To be more serious, flux was a major concern back then -- the shift from hot/warm to cold causing serious illness.
Since it looks like there’s a tile stove in the corner it could be well some sort of steam bath, so maybe they kept the hair covered to prevent damage
Oh, yep, completely missed that beautiful tile stove! You could be right about the hair, that would cause quite a frizz.
Russians often wear special felt hats in sauna (I’ve seen Russian tourists in Finland do so), people in sauna have told me that they are often necessary in their saunas which can be hotter than Finnish saunas.
Ice Swimmer, so in that case, it’s worn as protection?
Caine @ 11
Yes, protection against heat, though I’m not sure if it’s more popular with bald people.
Also if you don’t want to wet your hair then you have to wear the hat, dry, uncovered hair + sauna heat = straw hair.
I like the maid in the first, she seems to be poised to enter into that scene of domestic bliss, swatter in hand and expectation in the eye.