Every year, the famous jewel-toned glass that illuminates the interior of the Gothic cathedral of Nôtre Dame de Chartres attracts millions of visitors to France.

Encouraged by Harvard’s tendency to avoid academic and scholastic censorship, a surprising range of erotic art has appeared on campus.

Writing not long after the death of Leonardo da Vinci, art historian and biographer Giorgio Vasari described the late master’s “Mona Lisa,” placing special emphasis on the lady’s uncanny simper. “And in this work of Leonardo’s there was a smile so pleasing, that it was a thing more divine than human to behold; and it was held to be something marvelous, since the reality was not more alive,” he wrote.

Afraid that you’ll miss seeing your inbox fill each day with emails from dozens of disparate student organizations and house ...