Caravaggio and Blind Faith

Caravaggio's Amor Vincit Omnia shows a naked cupid. He's very realistic (apart from the wings, of course), with uneven teeth and a small penis. If I were to find a prepubescent boy, fit him with a pair of wings, and photograph him in such a pose, I suspect there would be an outcry, and I'd possibly end up in court. There are various laws in Britain that cover the making and possessing of obscene images of children. In general, they are very sensible laws. It's the definition of obscene that falls short. Is Caravaggio's cupid obscene? How about my imaginary boy?

In the past, the puritans had less of a stranglehold. Take the cover of the Blind Faith album, by the supergroup of the same name. It features a naked girl holding a toy aeroplane. The photographer apparently saw a girl on the Tube, and thought she'd make a good model. The girl didn't want to do it, so her eleven-year-old sister modelled instead. If a photographer today approached a girl on the Tube and suggested she should take her clothes off for an album cover, all hell would break loose.

It isn't just Blind Faith. Roger Dean's picture for the back cover of Yesterdays shows two naked blue children, one of whom is peeing. Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy shows naked children climbing on the Giant's Causeway. The cover of Nirvana's Nevermind shows a naked baby swimming. Like the Blind Faith cover, they're great images, but I seriously doubt they'd be allowed today.

All of which is a shame. Just because some evil people get off on images of children, the world is impoverished. Don't misunderstand me. I'm not advocating the legalisation of child pornography, just a sensible approach. Predatory paedophiles are evil, but I don't expect Rolf Harris was particularly influenced by the Blind Faith cover, and the new puritanism didn't stop 1400 children in Rotherham being sexually exploited. Whatever happened to common sense?

Once we've thrown the baby out with the bathwater, where next? Perhaps we should continue further down the same road, and ban pictures of money, in case people are tempted to go out and steal it, or cars, in a bid to stamp out joyriding. There's definitely a case for getting rid of all those old master paintings of the Madonna with a naked baby. And the Caravaggio.