We know neither the date nor the title (if it ever had one) of this portfolio of Merényi engravings, so we have named it after the first drawing. Here Merényi has taken the idea of the deity associated in Biblical sources with the practice of child sacrifice and adapted it into a woman-devouring phallus, an all-too-common theme in Germanic postwar art in a period where male models of sexuality were being questioned by a new breed of demanding women.

The rest of the portfolio continues to explore the theme, so that by the last it is hard to tell which of the genital combatants looks the most scared.

We are very grateful to Hans-Jürgen Döpp for these images; Hans-Jürgen, the compiler of many books on erotic art, curates the Venusberg online gallery and bookshop which you can find here.