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The study and artistic representation of the human body has been a constant throughout the history of art, from prehistoric times (Venus of Willendorf) to the present day. One of the cultures where the artistic representation of the nude proliferated the most was Ancient Greece, where it was conceived as an ideal of perfection and absolute ...
From Egyptian deities, to classical Greek ideals, through Peruvian erotic art, and up to Kim Kardashian’s naked selfies, the history of nudity in art has a long and interesting trajectory. The...
- The Female Nude: Between Art and Obscenity
- Prehistory: The Fertility Nude and The "Realistic" Nude
- Rock Paintings of The Tassili N'ajjer
- Ancient Egypt: Beauty to Be Carried Into The Afterlife
- Ancient Greece: The Body Like That of Aphrodite
- Attic Red-Figure Kylix of Onesimos
- The Roman World: The Erotic Art of Pompeii and Herculaneum
- Fresco of The Venus in A Shell - Pompeii
- Medieval Age: The Nakedness of Eve
- Expulsion of The Progenitors from Eden (1424-1425) by Masaccio
Although some of the aforementioned types of depictions of the female body appear clearly artistic and hardly scandalous, in most societies of the past women, probably because they enjoyed fewer rights than men, were rarely released from a representation predominantly associated with sexuality. For this very reason, it seems likely that only when w...
In Paleolithic art, female nudity was closely linked to the worship of fertility deities. This is evident in the earliest representations of the female human body form, which are called "Paleolithic Venuses," characterized by the prorompetent features of obese women with wide hips and breasts, which protrude or hang downward. Most of them date from...
The Tassili n'Ajjer is a mountain range located in southeastern Algeria, near the border with Libya. Much of that plateau, which is home to cypress trees and ancient sites, is protected by a National Park, a Biosphere Reserve and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In terms of female nudity, the Tassili n'Ajjer is known for its rock art, which, dating ba...
It is important to note a fundamental element of ancient Egyptian figurative culture: in the works of the period, it is quite rare to find women depicted in their later or mature years. In fact, female characters were depicted slender, beautiful and in their prime, features that, precisely because they were immortalized by art, it was hoped that th...
In ancient Greece, the ideal woman had to have soft forms, enhanced by round buttocks, long hair with waves, and a flawless beautiful face. Such requirements suited a time when having more fat on the body meant being wealthy, that is, being able to afford to eat well, distinguishing oneself from the lower and hungrier social classes. In this contex...
An example of these early approaches to the female nude in painting is the red-figure Attic Kylix, attributed to Onesimos (500 - 480 BCE), a work in which a nude, reclining woman is playing kottabos, a popular activity in the masculine symposium festival. In fact, following the tradition of the event, the girl with the handle of a deep cup (skyphos...
Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum was brought to light through a long series of archaeological excavations that began in the 18th century. This very activity revealed how the said site was rich in erotic art, depicted both in the form of frescoes and sculptures. The peculiarities of such subjects indicate that Roman customs were more liberal th...
The House of the Venus in Shell, a site discovered between 1933 and 1935, features a large peristyle, which is essentially the center of the domus. This very room was overlooked by the various rooms of the house, having walls decorated in the Pompeian IV style. In reality, however, the house is named after its most famous fresco, namely the Venus i...
In medieval times, following the spread of culture derived from Christianity, the body began to be intense as the sacred temple of the soul, which had to be preserved at all costs from carnal impulses, harbingers of grave sins in the sight of God. Despite such assumptions, vice continued to run rampant, so much so that it was in the sensuality of t...
The Expulsion of the progenitors from Eden is a fresco by Masaccio, located in the Brancacci Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. It shows Adam and Eve after they have broken God's rules and thus eaten the fruit of knowledge. In fact, they are shown naked and helpless as they are taken away from the Earthly Paradise. In real...
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Feb 7, 2018 · 1. In the Beginning. The Venus of Willendorf is the earliest known image of a naked female form, and dates from 28,000-25,000 BC. Standing at just 11cm tall, the figure was discovered by Josef Szombathy in 1908 during archaeological excavations at a site in Lower Austria, and subsequently identified as a fertility symbol.
Through each era, the nude has reflected changes in cultural attitudes regarding sexuality, gender roles, and social structure. One often cited book on the nude in art history is The Nude: a Study in Ideal Form by Lord Kenneth Clark, first published in 1956.
May 17, 2016 · 1. Francisco Goya, The Nude Maja, 1797-1800. Getty Images. Goya's Nude Maja, confident in her nakedness as she unashamedly gazes out at the viewer, is infamous for her direct confrontation....
Naked female figures are shown in very early prehistoric art, and in historical times, similar images represent such fertility deities as the Near Eastern Ishtar. The Greek goddess Aphrodite belongs to this family, and she too was imagined as life-giving, proud, and seductive.
