Heroic nudity

Idealized young men (but not women) were carved in kouros figures, and cult images in the temples of some male deities were nude.

The convention is occasionally also described in the modern era, such as Antonio Canova's statue of Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker (1802–1806) or George Bellows' anti-lynching lithograph The Law Is Too Slow (1923).

Nudity was often thought to be an important aspect of Greek civilization and was frequent in places such as gymnasiums and when competing in games.

[1] At least by the Imperial period of Rome, this concept operated for women as well as for men, with females being portrayed through Venus and other goddesses.

Male genitalia explicitly were not depicted as overly well-endowed to separate a noble and modest facade from the connotation in Greek culture that larger endowments belonged to more primal and barbaric characteristics.