Nude (art)

[6] The shocking elements were that it showed a particular model in a contemporary setting, with pubic hair rather than the smooth perfection of goddesses and nymphs, who returned the gaze of the viewer rather than looking away.

Rather than being a timeless Odalisque that could be safely viewed with detachment, Manet's image was assumed to be of a prostitute of that time, perhaps referencing the male viewers' own sexual practices.

The basic advice is to give matter-of-fact answers emphasizing the differences between art and other images, the universality of the human body, and the values and emotions expressed in the works.

[15] Art historian and author Frances Borzello writes that contemporary artists are no longer interested in the ideals and traditions of the past, but confront the viewer with all the sexuality, discomfort and anxiety that the unclothed body may express, perhaps eliminating the distinction between the naked and the nude.

The nudes of Greco-Roman art are conceptually perfected ideal persons, each one a vision of health, youth, geometric clarity, and organic equilibrium.

Many images also show figures in very thin clinging fabrics, that are effectively nudes; paint may have originally made the difference between clothed and unclothed areas more clear.

Japan had a tradition of mixed communal bathing that existed until very recently, and was often portrayed in manuscript illustrations, and later ukiyo-e woodblock prints and paintings.

Completely unclothed figures are rare in medieval art, the notable exceptions being Adam and Eve as recorded in the Book of Genesis and the damned in Last Judgement scenes anticipating the Sistine Chapel renderings.

[28] Increasingly, Christ was shown largely naked in scenes of his Passion, especially the Crucifixion,[29] and even when glorified in heaven, to allow him to display the wounds his sufferings had involved.

The Nursing Madonna and naked "Penitent Mary Magdalene", as well as the infant Jesus, whose penis was sometimes emphasized for theological reasons, are other exceptions with elements of nudity in medieval religious art.

By the late medieval period female nudes intended to be attractive edged back into art, especially in the relatively private medium of the illuminated manuscript, and in classical contexts such as the Signs of the Zodiac and illustrations to Ovid.

Toward the end of Greco-Roman antiquity, Christian doctrines of celibacy, chastity, and the devaluation of the flesh led to the declining interest of nudes for patrons, and thus for artists.

[33][34] The drawing of St. James Led to His Execution demonstrates that, early on, Mantegna did anatomical nude sketches in preparation for the Ovetari Chapel frescoes.

In Baroque art, the continuing fascination with classical antiquity influenced artists to renew and expand their approach to the nude, but with more naturalistic, less idealized depictions, perhaps more frequently working from live models.

Peter Paul Rubens, who with evident delight painted women of generous figure and radiant flesh, gave his name to the adjective Rubenesque.

[36] In the later Baroque or Rococo period, a more decorative and playful style emerged, exemplified by François Boucher's Venus Consoling Love, likely commissioned by Madame de Pompadour.

Goya's Nude Maja represent a break with the classical, showing a particular woman of his time, with pubic hair and a look directed at the viewer, rather than an allusion to nymphs or goddesses.

In the 19th century the Orientalism movement added another reclining female nude to the possible subjects of European paintings, the odalisque, a slave or harem girl.

While Europe accepted the nude in art, America was restrictive of sexuality, which sometimes included criticism or censorship of painting, even those that depicted classical or biblical subjects.

[42] Although both the Academic tradition and Impressionists lost their cultural supremacy at the beginning of the twentieth century, the nude remained although transformed by the ideas of modernism.

Alice Neel painted nudes, including her own self-portrait, in the same straightforward style as clothed sitters,[47] being primarily concerned with color and emotional content.

[49] Lucian Freud was one of a small group of painters which included Francis Bacon who came to be known as "The School of London", creating figurative work in the 1970s when it was unfashionable.

[54] Around 1970, from feminist principles, Sylvia Sleigh painted a series of works reversing stereotypical artistic themes by featuring naked men in poses usually associated with women.

[56] Lisa Yuskavage's nude figures painted in a nearly academic manner constitute a "parody of art historical nudity and the male obsession with the female form as object".

Alice Neel and Lucian Freud painted the modern male nude in the classic reclining pose, with the genitals prominently displayed.

A year later Laura Mulvey wrote Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, in which she applied to film theory the concept of the male gaze, asserting that all nudes are inherently voyeuristic.

In paintings like Gustave Courbet's The Origin of the World and François Boucher's Reclining Girl, women are depicted with open legs, implying that they are to be passive and an object to be used.

"Its slow drying time and various degrees of viscosity enable the artist to achieve rich and subtle blends of color and texture, which can suggest transformations from one human substance to another.

In the Indian and Southeast Asian sculpture tradition nudes were frequently adorned with bracelets and jewelry that tended to "punctuate their charms and demarcate the different parts of their bodies much as developed musculature does in the male".

[96] However, many photographers have been established as fine artists including Ruth Bernhard, Anne Brigman, Imogen Cunningham, Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston.