The development of the nude as a motif in the visual arts is unique in Western civilization. It has no direct counterpart in, for example, the temples of India or the woodblock prints of Japan. Although globalization today has spread the influence of the Western nude widely throughout, its regular appearance as a motif in the visual arts—it is taboo in Islamic cultures—is postmodern and recent.
The earliest nude is acknowledged to be the “Venus of Willendorf,” dating to about 30,000 B.C.E. Oversized about the torso, sporting a spillover bosom, it is a symbol of fertility. No doubt fertility would have been critical preoccupation for the survival of the small nomadic bands of the Neolithic period.
Originating in the kouros—the statue of a male youth in the nude striding forward—of the Archaic period (c. 650 to 480 B.C.E.)—the male nude rose to prominent depiction during the Classical period (510 to 323 B.C.E.) of Greek sculpture, which overlaps with the end of the Archaic period.
The depiction of the nude—specifically, the male nude—had a special meaning and significance for the Greeks. It represented the embodiment of Greek values, arete or excellence premier among them, realized particularly in the Greek visual conception of bodily perfection—balance, form, and proportion—and of handsome and heroic mien.
Arete was the ideal of the Iliad, the Bible of the Greeks, especially exemplified in the epic’s principal protagonist, Achilles. Arete was valor in battle. Arete, in a larger sense, was the victory of the Greeks over the Trojans and the Persians.
The Artemision Bronze is the consummate Greek male nude. Salvaged from the sea off Cape Artemision, northern Euboea, Greece, the piece stands at nearly seven feet tall—it is larger than life—in the act of casting a spear or the like. In all probability, it is a statue of Zeus throwing a thunderbolt.
“The identity of a bronze statue discovered off the coast of Artemision, Euboea, has been under discussion for nearly a century. The statue, which stands 2.09 m tall, was discovered in the remains of a shipwreck between 1926 and 1928; other finds indicate that the shipwreck must date after the middle of the second century BC, but the bronze statue dates stylistically to the mid-fifth century. Within a few years of its discovery, the so-called Artemision god was identified as either Zeus or Poseidon by different scholars for different reasons.
“These days, scholars usually identify the statue as Zeus, with a few exceptions (Zeus: Boardman 1985, p. 53; Stewart 2008, p. 45; Baitinger 2014, p. 223; Stansbury-O’Donnell 2015, p. 11. Poseidon: Carpenter 1991, p. 40 mentions the statue alongside other depictions of Poseidon, although he does not make a definitive statement on which god it depicts). But in the popular mindset, the question is far from settled.
“…One of the reasons why I personally find the question of the identity of the Artemision god uninteresting is because there are so many reasons to believe that the statue is Zeus, and so few arguments in favour of it being Poseidon. Most of the positive elements – features of the sculpture; contemporary parallels – point to Zeus; the main argument that it is Poseidon is that we cannot say with certainty that this is Zeus.
“The right hand of the god, in which the missing attribute would have been held, seems more likely to have held a thunderbolt than a trident. The grip is loose, which, in combination with the outstretched left arm, suggests that the god was poised to throw what he held. This is an action taken by Zeus with his thunderbolt, not Poseidon, who strikes with his trident, requiring a firm grip (Mylonas 1944, p. 148).
“A thunderbolt, too, better fits the angle at which the attribute would have been directed. The best-case scenario for the trident has it sticking out, cutting across the view of the god’s head awkwardly (Mylonas 1944, p. 153); which, according to Boardman, “spoils the figure” (Boardman 1985, p. 53). But this is unlikely to have been the case, as in the loose grip of this statue the trident could not have been balanced with its head so far forward (Mylonas 1944, pp. 154-155); rather, it would have been held so far back as to obscure the god’s head or be awkwardly behind it (Stewart 2008, p. 45).
“There are numerous parallels showing Zeus in this pose in architectural reliefs and smaller-scale bronze sculpture dating back to the seventh century, as well as contemporary vase painting. While some of these depictions include an eagle, absent here, this is no more trouble to identification as Zeus than the absence of a fish is to identification as Poseidon (Mylonas 1944, pp. 149-151).
“Caroline Houser notes that some have argued that the god is Poseidon on the basis that the statue was found in the sea (Houser and Finn 1983, p. 79); but, as Houser notes, this fails to understand that the context was a shipwreck, not an intentional deposition of the statue.
“…the god may be Poseidon, based on the absence of attributes, but is most likely Zeus, based on the physical evidence and the great majority of parallels.”
https://www.ancientworldmagazine.com/articles/god-three-dimensions/
—Matthew Lloyd, “A god in three dimensions,” Ancient World Magazine, August 10, 2020
The Artemision Bronze is a superhuman figure that supremely incarnates the king of the gods who rules from Mount Olympus.
“Zeus is shown in full heroic nudity with his left arm and foot thrust dynamically forward in the direction of his foes, while his right leg and arm are raised and slightly bent, implying movement. Zeus is the militant protector ready for action and would have originally been holding a thunderbolt (or trident, in the case of Poseidon).
“Meant to be seen from one ideal vantage point—standing facing the vast and muscular torso—this three-dimensional figure demonstrates complete mastery of anatomy. From the intense expression on his face, the bulging veins of his feet, and the variegated transitions between muscles, Zeus appears to be rendered from a human model. However, on closer examination, it is clear that aspects have been simplified and proportions expanded to give the figure the exemplary body worthy of his divine status. The sculpture, which presents its subject as superhuman rather than suprahuman, is in keeping with the Greek conception of gods as immortal and immensely powerful, yet subject to the personality flaws and unpredictable emotions of mortal beings.”
—“Art: Zeus of Artemision (also called Poseidon),” Annenberg Learner, n.d.
“The statue’s dimensions are a study in Greek geometry. His head is exactly one Greek foot in length. He stands 6 Greek feet tall, or exactly one Greek fathom. The entire figure has an ‘X’ shape that would fit into a perfect circle — his navel at the center, and his fingertips touching the rim.”
https://blog.ricksteves.com/blog/the-perfectly-posed-artemision-bronze/
—Rick Steves, “The Perfectly Posed Artemision Bronze,” Rick Steves’ Europe, June 12, 2021
%20edited.jpg) |
| Artemision Bronze or God from the Sea (c. 460 B.C.E.) |
If
Renaissance culture and art speak to us today, the message is inevitably unsatisfying,
because the Renaissance belongs to a period of history considerably removed
from our present time. We are not the children of the Renaissance. We do not
belong to the generations who had been poised for transformation at the
beginning of modern history. We are at least 500 years removed from that time.
I
guess that it is for this reason—the alienation that inevitably results from our
being separated in time—that I am challenged to find favorite pieces in art that
has been conceived so distantly in history.
Michelangelo’s
series of unfinished slaves may not have been executed with his legendary polish,
but they speak to the modern age for precisely this reason. They are works of
art in process, embodying our shifting, unsettled worldview. They lack smoothness
and finish, that is, the self-assurance of an earlier time.
“Awakening
Slave” (1530-34), so named by curators, is the most salient. Michelangelo, it
is related, said that he worked to liberate the forms imprisoned in marble.
Sure enough, this piece shows us a strapping male trapped in stone, struggling
to free himself. Michelangelo demonstrates his expert understanding of the
human figure, the male in particular, and reveals his love of the subject.
Here
the emergent form of the slave depicts the universal human condition. We are
all trapped, as it were, wrestling to be freed.
Deeply emotive, it is almost Expressionist in style.
 |
| Awakening Slave (1530-34) by Michelangelo |
The ambulant man is an early motif in sculpture—it is a commonplace, for example, in Egyptian sculpture, appearing as early as the beginning of the third millennium B.C.E. It was this motif that famously inspired Alberto Giacometti.
Also influenced by the Egyptian motif, the Greek kouros—plural kourai—shows a male youth in the nude striding forward. Originating in the Archaic period (c. 650 to 480 B.C.E.), the kouros represents arete, that is, excellence, according to the Greek aristocratic ideal.
Kouroi have religious meaning and symbolic significance. They were employed as grave markers or deposited in sanctuaries as votive offerings to the gods.
The female counterpart of the kouroi were the kourai. Kourai were always luxuriously clothed. At this point in the evolution of Greek art, depiction of the female in the nude was considered immodest.
%20by%20Auguste%20Rodin.jpg) |
| The Walking Man (1877-78) by Auguste Rodin |
The full title of the masterpiece by Henri Vidal is “Cain After Killing Abel.” Presently, it stands in Tuileries Gardens, Paris, where it was placed in a prominent location in 1982. Executed in the Academic style of the day, the sculpture is today better known than the artist himself.
“Cain” testifies to the highly expressive power of the human body in the visual arts. Stooping, weight-bearing left foot forward, Cain’s taut, except possibly for his sagging left arm, heavily muscled, handsome figure throbs with emotion, top to bottom, wracked by anguish, grief, and remorse. He presses his right hand against his stricken countenance, hiding his face in shame. Biblically, Cain is a villain.
Idealized, the subject is nude, depilated, according to Academic convention. He is transformed into a symbol of dreadful sin momentous and irreversible in its consequences.
The style combines the classical and mythological content, and naturalism of Neoclassicism with the interest of Romanticism in portraying deep, intense emotion.
Originating in sixteenth-century Italy, the Academic style became very influential by the middle of the nineteenth century, when the French Académie des Beaux-Arts emerged as its foremost exponent. At the close of the nineteenth century, the advent of modernism in the visual arts together with technological advancements in photography brought to an end the hegemony of the Academic school.
%20by%20Henri%20Vidal.jpg) |
| Cain (1896) by Henri Vidal |
“Sisyphus” (2007) by Jane McAdam Freud is a remarkable piece of contemporary sculpture. Freud portrays the tragic protagonist from Greek myth, Sisyphus, imprisoned by the gods, endlessly laboring in a task eternally unfinished.
Kneeling,
hands pushing against the rock, his desperate condition is shown as irreversible
and permanent. Almost one with the jagged stone, he emerges from the surface in
relief, incapable, ironically, of even the least movement. Our vantage from the
rear offers us, unusually, a look at the soles of his feet and his raised
shoulder blades. The work is assembled from several large blocks.
Combining original expressive elements, Freud offers us a figurative work of tremendous power, monumental in conception.
 |
| Sisyphus (2007) by Jane McAdam Freud |
The original title when the statue was exhibited in the 1890 Salon de Paris was “The Old Woman.” The Salon, which was started by the Sun King Louis XIV in 1667, was by 1890 a prestigious international art exhibition run by the Société des Artistes Français. The Société had been founded in 1881 to take over the management of the event from the government of France.
In Art: Conversations with Paul Gsell (1911), the art critic Paul Gsell describes the statue as “the courtesan, who was once radiant with youth and grace, is now repellent with decrepitude. She is as ashamed of her hideousness as she was once proud of her charm” (Chapter 2).
Gsell observes that the sculpture was “inspired by the poem of Villon on the beautiful helmet-maker’s woman” (Chapter 2).
François Villon was a fifteenth-century French poet whose life was marred by criminal convictions, including the murder of a priest during a brawl. Gsell references Villon’s poem “Les Regrets de la Belle Heaulmière” or “The Regrets of the Beautiful Helmet-Maker.”
Although heaulmière literally means the specialized medieval armorer who forged helmets for knights and foot soldiers, in Villon’s poem the term is an archaic euphemism for prostitute (who supplies the “helmet” for the male “head”).
Based on Gsell’s account, the two most popular titles today, “She Who Was the Helmet-Maker’s Beautiful Wife” and “The Old Courtesan,” were probably assigned by Rodin to the statue after the 1890 Salon.
“The Old Courtesan” is one of a group of three figures in the lower left of “The Gates of Hell,” commissioned by the Directorate of Fine Arts in 1880. “The Gates” was supposed to serve as the entrance to a Decorative Arts Museum, which was never built. Rodin worked on “The Gates” for thirty-seven years, adding to and subtracting from the piece some two hundred figures, several of which Rodin developed into outstanding individual works, including the famous “The Thinker” (1904) and “The Kiss” (1882).
Rodin’s original vision for “The Gates of Hell” conceived of it as an allegory inspired by Dante Alighieri’s Inferno. “The Thinker”—originally, “The Poet”—is in “The Gates” a sitting figure centrally located below the door lintel and denoting the poet Dante as he contemplates the encompassing spectacle. “The Kiss,” originally titled “Francesca da Rimini,” alludes to the affair of Dante’s contemporary, an Italian noblewoman of Ravenna who was murdered by her husband, Giovanni Malatesta, upon his discovery of her dalliance with his younger brother, Paolo. Francesca and Paolo appear, whirling about the second circle of hell, in Dante’s Inferno, Canto 2.
“The Old Courtesan” in “The Gates” is grouped with a baby and a mother, which all taken together represent three chronological life stages—birth, youth, and old age. In this context “The Old Courtesan” amounts to theological commentary by Rodin. Rodin, who married Rose Beuret, his common-law wife of 53 years, just three weeks before she passed away, and who in the course of his life carried on affairs with at least three different women, was no saint, yet here he equates consenting to sins of lust with the senescence of the soul, in the sense of spiritual degeneration.
“The Old Courtesan” turns on its head a longstanding convention of Greco-Roman sculpture—the female nude as it developed in the West was supposed to represent an image of ideal female beauty, of which “Aphrodite of Cnidus” (c. 360 to 330 B.C.E.) by Praxiteles and “Venus de Milo” or “Aphrodite of Milos” (c. 110 to 160 B.C.E.) by an anonymous sculptor are foremost examples.
In medieval Christian Europe, the nude was considered taboo, except for pious portrayals of Adam and Eve.
During the Renaissance, the nude, both the male and the female, were revived as objects of aesthetic idealization. “The Birth of Venus” (c. 1484-86) by Sandro Botticelli is illustrative.
It was only a matter of time before established conventions were challenged by the artists of the day. “La Maja Desnuda” (c. 1797-1800) by Francisco Goya and “Olympia” (1863) by Edouard Manet are notorious in art history because they were created as scandalous plays on the treatment of the nude in painting.
Rodin’s “The Old Courtesan” has similarly compelling historical significance. Rodin’s play on the nude is an inversion of artistic conventions and a challenge to the expectations of the audience.
%20by%20Auguste%20Rodin.jpg) |
|
The Old Courtesan (1887) by Auguste Rodin |
The human back is a part of the body of interest to the visual artist.
The entire torso has 30 pairs of skeletal muscles, with the muscles in the front more accessible to visual examination than those in the back.
Depicting the nude is less objectionable when the artist makes the back his subject. Genitalia are not directly shown.
The male back is more muscular than that of the female and is of particular interest for this reason.
Michelangelo, for example, was unusually drawn to depicting the muscularity of the male. His studies of the male back are renowned for the artist’s draftsmanship.
Two studies of note are “Male Back with a Flag” (1504) and “Libyan Sibyl” (1511).
“Male Back” was a study in preparation for “Battle of Cascina,” commissioned by Piero Soderini for the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. Although Michelangelo never finished the fresco, copies of his cartoon survive, notably that of his pupil, Aristotele da Sangallo.
“Libyan Sibyl” is preparatory drawing for a Sistine Chapel fresco which was executed in 1511.
The back of the sibyl, which is strongly shaded, looks more male than female because of its muscularity. It is not as apparent in the colored fresco.
The female back is a different story from that of the male. The female back is often represented as sensuous—smooth, supple, graceful, usually slender.
The foregoing attributes are rendered by Rodin in “Danaid” (1889) with extraordinary skill and finish. The marble piece is identical to one of the mythological figures in “The Gates of Hell,” a bronze commissioned by the Directorate of Fine Arts in 1880 and completed in 1917.
%20by%20Auguste%20Rodin.JPG) |
| Danaid (1889) by Auguste Rodin |
Aristide Maillol (1861-1944) is a Modernist sculptor set apart for his Neoclassical style. Most of his work steps down highbrow themes. Notably compelling are his “conceits” of the female nude as a metaphor for aspects of nature. They include, for example, “The Mountain” (1937), “The River” (1938 to 1943), and “Night” (1902 to 1909, cast 1939).
“Air” (1938, cast posthumously) intrigues because it shows a female figure poised lengthwise...suspended as if weightless! Despite the frontal nudity, its form is idealized. Consistent with artistic convention, the artist smooths over the genitals, omitting them.
%20by%20Aristide%20Maillol.jpg) |
| Air (1938, cast posthumously) by Aristide Maillol |
Guillermo Tolentino (1890-1976), the first Philippine National Artist for Sculpture, was educated in the Beaux-Arts tradition of the West. He was born just before the inception of the Philippine Revolution against Spain in 1896 and grew to adulthood under the American colonial regime, enrolling in the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts and graduating with a Fine Arts degree in 1915. Tolentino traveled to New York in 1919, studied at École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and Regge Istituto Superiore di Belle Arti di Roma in Rome, returning to the Philippines in 1923.
Although the Beaux-Arts Style principally applies to architecture, it also describes in a secondary sense the visual arts. Basically Neoclassical, the style is influenced by Romanticism, the nineteenth-century movement that followed upon and interacted with Neoclassicism. Depiction in the Beaux-Arts Style is predominantly “realistic” in the broad sense of the term.
The artist’s oeuvre throughout his life is marked by the Beaux-Arts Style. To the point, “Filipinas in Bondage” is realistic, dramatic, and emotive—and although the subject is bound by rope, heroic. Her fine features and exquisite countenance, fiercely glaring, avow resistance. She is petite and female, which would be appropriate for the metaphor of her condition of subjugation.
Tolentino’s decision to depict a female in this instance is ostensibly intentional—because masculinity, among other negative attributes, tends towards aggression and domination, so that femininity, to the extent that it is the obverse, reckons as one among the logical targets of dysfunctional masculinity.
The piece is undated, possibly because when it was created the artist risked being penalized by the American colonial government for subversion. “Filipinas” probably dates to the 1930s, because it speaks to the historical context in the Philippines at the time.
After resistance to the U.S. forces in the Philippines had largely disappeared by 1902, the Jones Act passed by the U.S. Congress committed to the eventual independence of the Philippines. Although the archipelago had become an autonomous commonwealth in 1935, Japan interrupted the country’s passage to independence by invading the Philippines in 1941. Following the surrender of Japan in 1945, the U.S. granted the Philippines independence in 1946.
%20by%20Guillermo%20Tolentino.jpg) |
| Filipinas in Bondage (undated) by Guillermo Tolentino |
Marc Quinn (born 1964) is a contemporary British artist for whom conceptual art is an important feature of his work. He is not defined by his medium. He works with various materials, from the traditional, e.g., marble, to the modern, e.g., stainless steel, to the eccentric—blood, bread, and flowers (yes, really).
“Conceptual art is art for which the idea (or concept) behind the work is more important than the finished art object. It emerged as an art movement in the 1960s and the term usually refers to art made from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s.”
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/c/conceptual-art
—“Conceptual Art,” Tate, no date
This definition of conceptual art coincides with Quinn’s own artistic manifesto.
“Marc Quinn makes art about what it is to be a person living in the world – whether it concerns Man’s relationship with nature and how that is mediated by human desire; or what identity and beauty mean and why people are compelled to transform theirs; or representing current, social history in his work. His work also connects frequently and meaningfully with art history, from Modern masters right back to antiquity.”
http://marcquinn.com/read/biography#
—“Biography,” Marc Quinn, no date
“Alison Lapper Pregnant” (2005) illustrates well Quinn’s intention to engage art history and to provoke reflection “about what it is to be a person living in the world.” He challenges artistic tradition by choosing a Modern subject—a pregnant woman—with an imperfect body, who is nude besides. The model, Quinn’s friend and colleague, was born with phocomelia, which left her without arms and with shortened legs. The piece intentionally repudiates the Classical ideal of female beauty.
It’s larger than life. It stands approximately 12 feet high and is made of 13 tons of Carrara marble.
I join most viewers in being disturbed by this piece; on the other hand, it compels me to reflect on the deep meaning of humanity. It’s a brutal work of art.
%20by%20Marc%20Quinn.jpg) |
| Alison Lapper Pregnant (2005) by Marc Quinn |
PHOTO CREDITS
ReplyDelete“Artemision Bronze or God from the Sea” (c. 460 B.C.E.), courtesy of Mark Cartwright:
https://www.worldhistory.org/image/407/zeus-or-poseidon-from-cape-artemisium/
“Awakening Slave” (1530-34) by Michelangelo, courtesy of Fordham Art History:
https://michelangelo.ace.fordham.edu/items/show/209
“The Walking Man” (1877-78) by Auguste Rodin, courtesy of Rodney:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rjhuttondfw/2177451647
“Cain” (1896) by Henri Vidal is in the public domain.
“Sisyphus” (2007) by Jane McAdam Freud is from the Sundaram Tagore Gallery website.
Gonzalinho
PHOTO CREDITS
Delete“The Old Courtesan” (1887) by Auguste Rodin is in the public domain.
“Danaid” (1889) by Auguste Rodin, courtesy of Ad Meskens:
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2026/01/ten-nude-sculptures.html
“Air” (1938) by Aristide Maillol, courtesy of Thank You (25 Millions) views:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/prayitnophotography/28094037156/
“Alison Lapper Pregnant” (2005) by Marc Quinn, courtesy of Andrew Skudder:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/skuds/358429338/
Gonzalinho
THE FEMALE BACK
ReplyDeleteTHE VALPINÇON BATHER (1808) BY JEAN-AUGUSTE-DOMINIQUE INGRES
Ingres’ oil is notable for its technical mastery.
It also conforms to the formal idealization sought by Neoclassicism. The nude here appears smooth as a stone. It could be mistaken for polished marble were it not so realistically colored.
It would be a mistake to assume that the depiction of the nude, male as well as female, was not considered objectionable in Western culture. It was.
Possibly for this reason the authorities who arbitrated art evolved aesthetic conventions to make the nude a motif more acceptable to highbrow society. Genitalia should not be shown, and the display of the nude had to appear as the subject of mythology, normally Greco-Roman, or in a historical or otherwise important commemorative context.
“The Valpinçon Bather” was controversial at the time because it did not satisfy the conservative norms of Neoclassicism. “The Bather” showed the nude in a harem—a suggestively erotic setting.
To be continued
Gonzalinho
THE FEMALE BACK
DeleteContinued
DANAID (1889) BY AUGUSTE RODIN
Executed by Rodin with extraordinary skill and finish, “Danaid” shows typical attributes of the female form—sensuous, supple, graceful, and here, slender. This marble piece is identical to one of the mythological figures in “The Gates of Hell,” a bronze commissioned by the Directorate of Fine Arts in 1880 and completed in 1917.
To be continued 2
Gonzalinho
THE FEMALE BACK
DeleteContinued 2
UNTITLED (FEMALE NUDE) (NO DATE) BY VICENTE MANANSALA
Vicente Manansala, 1981 National Artist of the Philippines for Painting (posthumous), original member of the Thirteen Moderns formed in 1937, is recognized for originating and advancing the style of Transparent Cubism.
His colorful palette is not apparent in this piece, but his geometrization of the subject and penchant for transparency—even in black-and-white—are.
Although Manansala was renowned for his particular brand of Cubism, we should not confine him to a box. He was highly skilled in naturalistic depiction; the nude was a major subject of his oeuvre.
To be continued 3
Gonzalinho
THE FEMALE BACK
DeleteContinued 3
NUDE FROM BEHIND (NO DATE) BY ALEEN AKED
Aleen Aked (1907–2003) has been described as Post-Impressionist, and the quality of light and color in her work attests to the designation. The luminosity of this piece is hypnotic.
Its subject matter is secular, somewhat mundane, which is Modernist. Not an ounce of Neoclassicism here. She is a painter of the twentieth century.
Gonzalinho
WHAT IS NUDE ART?
ReplyDelete“Nude art is an artistic genre—spanning painting, sculpture, photography, and film—that represents the unclothed human body, often focusing on aesthetics, form, and symbolism rather than mere eroticism. It acts as a study of the human figure, historical narrative, or an expression of beauty.
“Key aspects of nude art include:
“Definition: It is a representation of the human body without clothing.
“Artistic Purpose: Unlike simply being ‘naked,’ which can imply vulnerability or exposure, the ‘nude’ is generally depicted in a poised, aesthetic, or classical manner.
“Historical Context: Throughout history, it has been used to explore themes like mythology, religion, and the idealization of the body.
“Purpose: It often aims to highlight the beauty of the human form,, anatomical study, or to express emotional or artistic concepts.
“Distinction from Pornography: Art historian Kenneth Clark famously distinguished the ‘nude’ as a artistic, often idealized, form of the human body, whereas ‘naked’ is often associated with the unposed, raw, or vulnerable state.
“Nude art has evolved from ancient times to modern photography, aiming to challenge viewers’ perceptions of the body, beauty, and social conventions.”
—“nude art definition” prompt, Google Search AI Overview, January 25, 2026
AI application used by Google Search on January 25, 2026 is Gemini 2.0 and Gemini 3.0.
To be continued
Gonzalinho
WHAT IS NUDE ART?
DeleteContinued
Depiction of the nude in art raises the issue of displaying the genitals, which as a rule is considered objectionable, even in Western culture where historically it has been the most acceptable, even if not generally.
There are several ways in which the artist can avoid showing genitalia and reduce the erotic content of a piece.
The first way is to simply not show the genitals. However, the result is unnatural, so that the omission comes across somewhat as strange, artificial, or forced. “Air” (1938, cast posthumously) by Aristide Maillol is an instance.
Another option is to conceal the genitals by resorting to deflected poses, not directly frontal. This option can be accomplished in a natural way. “Filipinas in Bondage” (no date) by Guillermo Tolentino is an example.
Because it isn’t always possible to avoid frontal poses, one possible technique is to use draping or its equivalent, which can be executed as an integral part of the piece.
“Atlas” (1937) and “Prometheus” (1934) in the Rockefeller Center are illustrative.
Two additional examples include “The Raft of the Medusa” (1818-1819) by Théodore Géricault, where the figure in the lower right of his monumental painting is draped; and “Apollo and Daphne” (1622-1625) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini—the lower part of Daphne’s body just below the waist is cleverly hidden by a sheet of bark at the moment when the maiden transforms into a tree, twigs and leaves sprouting from her astonished hands and flowing hair.
Verisimilitude, especially flesh color, has the effect of augmenting the erotic content of the nude in art.
Sculptors are able to substantially reduce this effect by using manifestly inanimate materials, like stone, e.g. marble, or metal, e.g. bronze.
Diminishing or eliminating erotic subject matter, which is within the artist’s control, regulates the effect on the viewer.
On the other hand, many artists choose to manipulate erotic content in order to intentionally shock, upset, or provoke the viewer.
To be continued 2
Gonzalinho
WHAT IS NUDE ART?
DeleteContinued 2
Summary of how to avoid the depiction of genitalia and reduce erotic content:
- Don’t show it (unnatural)
- Deflected poses, not directly frontal
- Draping or its equivalent
- Step away from verisimilitude. Use manifestly inanimate materials, like stone, e.g. marble, or metal, e.g. bronze
- Diminish or eliminate any explicitly erotic subject matter
Gonzalinho
MARBLE CYCLADIC VENUS (c. 4500 to 4000 B.C.E.)
ReplyDeleteThis remarkable example of a Neolithic female nude, an artifact of early Aegean civilization, looks astonishingly Modernist—its form is exaggerated, stylized, and even somewhat abstract.
THE CYCLADES
“In the Aegean Archipelago, southeast of mainland Greece, a group of 220 islands forms the Cyclades. The name ‘Cyclades’ would translate as ‘circle of islands’, forming a circle around the sacred island of Delos. Delos was the birthplace of the god Apollo, so sacred that while humans could live there, no one could be born or die on its soil. The island until today has maintained its sanctity and has only 14 inhabitants, the caretakers of the archaeological site. According to Greek mythology, Poseidon, God of the sea, furious at the Cyclades nymphs turned them into islands, positioned to worship god Apollo.
“Today the Cyclades are among the most popular tourist destinations in Greece. Santorini, Mykonos, Naxos, Paros, Milos, Sifnos, Syros, and Koufonisia are among the most popular. Two of those islands are volcanic, namely Santorini and Milos.”
https://www.thecollector.com/aegean-civilizations-the-emergence-of-european-art/
—Maria Dragatakis, BA Classics, Classical Languages and Literature, “Aegean Civilizations: The Emergence of European Art,” The Collector, January 28, 2020
Gonzalinho
Showing the genitals isn’t necessary in nude art. Numerous examples exist in which the artist doesn’t do it. Examples:
ReplyDelete“The Thinker” (1904) by Auguste Rodin
“Atlas” (1937) by Lee Lawrie and Rene Paul Chambellan
“Prometheus” (1934) by Paul Manship
“Venus de Milo” or “Aphrodite of Milos” (c. 110 to 160 B.C.E.)
“The Birth of Venus” (c. 1484-86) by Sandro Botticelli
“Filipinas in Bondage” (c. 1930s) by Guillermo Tolentino
Gonzalinho
THE MEANING OF PUBIC HAIR IN ART
ReplyDeleteIt’s not the same for men and women.
The Greeks of the Archaic period (c. 650 to 480 B.C.E.), who introduced the depiction of the nude and its widespread acceptance in Greek culture, had no inhibitions about displaying pubic hair in the kouros—plural kourai—a male youth in the nude striding forward. Kourai were employed as grave markers or deposited in sanctuaries as votive offerings to the gods. Pubic hair was a sign of manhood.
“Emphasis on their pubic hair…would have drawn attention to the youthful age captured by the sculptor, depicting the individual at the prized moment between boy and man.”
https://ancientanatomies.wordpress.com/2018/01/18/perfect-pubic-hair/#:~:text=In%20many%20ways%2C%20the%20youthful,hairstyle%2C%20stance%20or%20facial%20expression.
—Henriette Willberg, “Perfect Pubic Hair,” Ancient Anatomies, January 18, 2018
In contrast, Greco-Roman sculpture did not show the genitalia of the woman, pubic hair included.
Art historians believe a probable reason for the omission was that personal grooming valued depilation; they cite a substantial literature about the practice of depilation.
“Female body hair was considered barbaric, uncivilized, or low-class in Greek culture. Recipes to remove hair—from plucking to shaving to sugar waxing—have existed all over the world for thousands of years.”
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-taboo-history-womens-body-hair-art
—Julia Fiore, “The Taboo History of Women’s Body Hair in Art,” Artsy, May 18, 2019
On the other hand, if depilation is the principal reason for not depicting pubic hair in the female nude, then why is the pudendum entirely omitted?
Evidently, the intention of the artist is not only to omit pubic hair but also the entire female genitalia.
“It hit me on a fairly ordinary Wednesday afternoon, when on a whim I decided to visit the Greek and Roman galleries of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art; but what hit me was…that none of the forms showed the reality of female genitals.
“…the male statues rock out with their cocks out; dicks are everywhere. Penises of all sizes surround me: curled and flaccid, pert and alert, balls dropped and shrunken. I wandered around, looking closely at all of the female nude statues and fragments. There are no vulvas, no protruding labia, anywhere. There’s no suggestion that vaginas existed.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/13/absent-female-genitals-art-repeated
—Syreeta McFadden, “The lack of female genitals on statues seems thoughtless until you see it repeated,” The Guardian (April 13, 2015)
To be continued
Gonzalinho
THE MEANING OF PUBIC HAIR IN ART
DeleteContinued
It was only centuries later, by the end of the eighteenth century that Francisco Goya produced “Naked Maja” (1797-1800), the first work of the visual arts to unambiguously show pubic hair in the female nude.
“One of the significant things about the image shown above — Francisco de Goya’s La Maja Desnuda (“The Nude Maja”) — is that it’s often said to be the first depiction of female pubic hair in Western art.
“Given that the painting was made sometime between 1797 and 1800, it seems to beg the question: why did it take so long for artists to paint realistic pubic hair?
“As it happens, pubic hair had been hinted at before Goya’s reclining nude. Jan van Eyck added a gauzy shadow in his depiction of Eve (1432), as did Lucas Cranach in his painting Sleeping Nymph of the Spring…from the 1530s.
“Yet these instances are few and almost all confined to the North European artists.
“The truth is, when you begin scouring the archives for hints of intimate body hair, then you discover that pubic hair in art is an uncommon and problematic thing. But why?”
https://christopherpjones.medium.com/does-art-have-a-problem-with-pubic-hair-a76f978648d9
—Christopher P. Jones, “Does Art Have a Problem with Pubic Hair?” Medium, October 27, 2022
“Naked Maja” was intended for private viewing at the time. Therefore, we infer that the underlying reason why artists did not show female genitalia is that doing so was considered obscene, in the present-day sense of the word.
“Pubic hair represents sexual maturity; its removal suppresses an element of female sexuality and eroticism that society found troubling. In medieval Europe, this censorship was strengthened by the influx of Christianity and the subsequent dominance of Christian themes and motifs in art…the female nude in European art became something between a child and an adult — a female eunuch.”
https://thecultural.me/chaste-ideals-rendering-female-pubic-hair-in-european-art-818716
—Arielle Jasiewicz-Gill, “Chaste Ideals: Rendering Female Pubic Hair in European Art,” The Cultural Me: Arts and Culture for Everyday Living, June 26, 2020
Depicting pubic hair sexualizes the female nude. Omitting it does the opposite.
Gonzalinho
NUDE (1979) BY CESAR LEGASPI
ReplyDeleteIn contrast to the male back, the female back is usually represented in the visual arts as sensuous—smooth, supple, graceful, often slender.
Cesar Legaspi, 1990 National Artist of the Philippines for the Visual Arts-Painting, takes this approach in drawing the female back.
The artist was an original member of the Thirteen Moderns launched in 1937.
He was a highly skilled draftsman and accomplished in oil.
The nude in transparent cubist style was a major motif of his work.
Gonzalinho
CESAR T. LEGASPI (1917-1994), 1990 NATIONAL ARTIST OF THE PHILIPPINES FOR VISUAL ARTS-PAINTING
ReplyDeleteTHE SURVIVOR (1972)
DESCENT (1980)
Original member of the Thirteen Moderns founded in 1937, he worked as a commercial artist until retirement in 1968. Throughout the forties and fifties until the late sixties the first phase of his fine art could be described as Cubist works of social commentary about the economic hardship and poverty endemic in urban Philippines. His paintings from this period were, appropriately, dark. Already he artist displayed interest in modeling male musculature.
Beginning in the late sixties, he developed his own personal, meticulous and refined style of Transparent Cubism to dazzling effect. His principal subject, the male nude, he limned linearly in overlapping painstakingly diaphanous, interiorly lit planes. His style evinced a highly developed aestheticism.
Gonzalinho
THE THINKER (1904) BY AUGUSTE RODIN
ReplyDelete“The Thinker” (1904) by Auguste Rodin ranks with Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” and Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes as one among the most recognized works of the Western visual arts.
The sculpture is a picture of all-encompassing cerebration—it shows a fraught, closed, fully preoccupied figure undergoing the mental and physical strain of totalistic thought. His entire posture, mien, and facial and bodily expressions outwardly display his intensive inner condition.
Rodin does not reproduce the smooth, polished marble of tradition. He models the piece in clay before casting it in bronze, bestowing the sculpture with the artist’s signature rough, unfinished character and thereby eliciting the dramatic, emotional, and expressive quality he so valued in his art.
“The Thinker” was directly influenced by the muscularity of Michelangelo’s oeuvre and in particular by the statue of Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino, the centerpiece of the tomb Michelangelo accomplished in the period 1520-1534, and by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux’s “Ugolino and His Sons” (1865-1867).
Rodin based his work on a real-life model, Jean Baud, a boxer and wrestler.
Gonzalinho
“Male Back” by topkaterine (artist)
ReplyDeletehttps://www.deviantart.com/topkaterine/art/Male-back-Pencil-drawing-908735721
The shading in the pencil drawing is dramatic.
Gonzalinho
THE LITTLE MERMAID (1913) BY EDVARD ERIKSEN
ReplyDeleteThe sculpture located in the harbor of Copenhagen, Denmark has become a symbol of sorts for Denmark and a major tourist destination. It was commissioned by Carl Jacobsen, the son of Jacob Christian Jacobsen, the founder of the Carlsberg Group. Carl wished to memorialize the fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen in his collection Fairy Tales Told for Children published in 1837 by C. A. Reitzel.
The statue is a copy of the original in the safekeeping of the Eriksen family.
The mermaid is notably two-tailed and represents a creature originating in French folklore known as the Mélusine. The two-tailed mermaid is also familiar as the mascot in the Starbucks logo.
Many who see the statue for the first time will be perplexed by the inexplicable feature traversing between the left and right hands of the figure—some say that it’s seaweed, which is plausible.
The fairy tale in full:
”The tale of Danish origin, the original Little Mermaid story, is about an adorable young mermaid, out of a family of six motherless mermaid sisters, who live with their father, the sea king, and their grandmother in an underwater world of mermaids and mermen. At fifteen, her grandmother lets her swim to the surface to observe life above the sea. The Little Mermaid then discovers a prince inside a royal sailing ship who is the precise same prince whom she keeps a statue of in her underwater garden made of various parts of shipwrecks. Seemingly, they celebrate his birthday on board the ship.
“However, shortly after, the ship with the prince sinks in a disastrous storm, where only the prince survives, thanks to the mermaid. She is aware that he, as a human, cannot live underwater and takes him to a nearby temple. However, before he reveals her identity, she flees, and instead, a young woman happens to be at the prince’s side when he regains consciousness. He then believes that it was this woman who rescued him.
“A sea witch now appears with a potion that can transform The Little Mermaid’s tail into proper legs. She can now walk on land and get acquainted with the handsome prince, to whom she is deeply attracted. The disadvantage or price is that she will have to give up her beautiful voice and no longer be able to sing, and her feet will hurt every time she takes a step. Moreover, to become ‘human’ and make her soul mortal, she will have to make the prince fall in love and marry her. If not, she will die.
“The Little Mermaid is so desperate to marry the prince that she gives up her mermaid life. She drinks the liquid and passes out. It is now the prince’s turn to find her. However, when meeting the prince, she cannot explain to him that she was the one who rescued him since she is now mute.
“The prince is soon supposed to marry a princess in a neighbouring kingdom, who turns out to be the girl who found him after he was brought ashore. The prince is convinced that he can only love the one who rescued him, who he now believes is the foreign princess, and he happily accepts to marry her.
To be continued
Gonzalinho
THE LITTLE MERMAID (1913) BY EDVARD ERIKSEN
DeleteContinued
“The Little Mermaid now realises she will die since she has failed to gain his love. Her mermaid sisters now bring her a magical dagger they have received from the sea witch in exchange for their hair. Their poor sister is now supposed to plunge it into the prince’s heart to get his blood to fall onto her feet and merge into a fishtail. She will then be able to return to the underwater world again.
“Although tempting, the little mermaid cannot kill the prince and destroy the marriage between the prince and the princess. Determined, she throws the dagger into the sea, immediately dissolves into foam and becomes a daughter of the air. Miraculously, she now has the chance to gain an eternal soul by providing cooling breezes to the hot global winds for three centuries. She may even shorten the period if she finds children who bring credit to their parents, whereas she will extend it if the children disgrace them instead.”
https://travelinculture.com/little-mermaid-statue-hans-christian-andersen-story/
—Anlundbye, “The Little Mermaid Statue & Story – Hans Christian Andersen,” Travel in Culture, March 8, 2025
The character of the mermaid in the fairy tale represents, among other lasting literary motifs, human love, longing, and sacrifice, and the inexorability of misfortune and tragedy.
History of vandalism of the copy—not the original, fortunately—is an entire story by itself.
“Some parts of the statue on display at Langelinie Pier are not original, however. The statue has been vandalized multiple times, and the damage has at times been severe. In 1964, the statue’s head was cut off, presumably by political dissidents. Despite an intense investigation and several confessions, the perpetrators were not caught and the original head was never found. A replacement head was grafted on to the statue instead.
“In 1984, two drunken men sawed off a section of the statue’s arm. They returned it a few days later and admitted what they had done. The arm was repaired. In 1990, someone attempted to remove the head but was unsuccessful. The resulting gash to the statue’s neck was repaired. In 1998, vandals once again removed the head. This time, the alleged perpetrators were radical feminists who wanted to make a statement against the way men viewed women. The head was found outside a Danish television station’s facility and reattached.
“In 2003, the statue was blown off the boulder, presumably by people protesting Denmark’s involvement in the war in Iraq. The statue was retrieved from the sea and returned to its usual place.
“In the early part of the twenty-first century, the statue was the target of some less damaging attention. Protestors added a burqa in protest when Turkey applied to join the European Union in 2004. On International Women’s Day in 2006, a sex toy was found in the mermaid’s hand. In 2007, the statue was dressed in Muslim-style clothing and a head scarf for unknown reasons.
“The statue was vandalized with paint twice in 2017. In May, the mermaid was covered with red paint. The ground nearby was painted with a message protesting Denmark’s allowance of the killing of pilot whales near Faroe Island in Danish waters. On June 14, 2017, the statue was coated with blue and white paint. The message left was thought to refer to [a] Somali hospitalized in a Danish psychiatric clinic”
https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/visual-arts/little-mermaid-statue
—Janine Ungvarsky, “The Little Mermaid (statue),” EBSCO, 2023
Gonzalinho
KÓPAKONAN (THE SEAL WIFE) (2014) BY HANS PAULI OLSEN
ReplyDeleteThe nine-foot tall statue is located at Mikladalur Harbor, Kalsoy, one of the Faroe Islands.
The story of the seal wife is a darkly sexual narrative convergent with the temper of Viking mythology.
“The legend tells that the seals around the Faroe Islands were once upon a time people like you and me, sad souls who have taken their own lives in the sea.
“Once a year, these seals are allowed to come ashore on the twelfth night of Christmas. There, they will take off their seal skin and play, sing, and dance, recovering their human shapes—but only until the sun rises.
“The legend tells of a young farmer from the village of Mikladalur on the island of Kalsoy who had heard that there was a seal cave south of his town. It was said that the seals gathered for their one night as humans here. Wanting to find out if this was true, the young man decided to go and have a look.
“As night fell, he hid behind a large rock and watched in astonishment as a large group of seals approached the shore. One by one, they popped their heads above the waves, checking that it was safe to come out of the sea. Then, they went onto the shore, slipping out of their seal skin and recovering their human shapes.
“On this twelfth night, many seals—male and female, young and old—came together and began to sing, dance, and play, not knowing that they were being watched.
“Suddenly, the young farmer noticed a young female seal approaching the rock where he was hiding. She took off her sealskin and transformed into the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Fascinated, he watched her running along to play with the others, and an idea began to grow in his mind: ‘This woman shall be mine.’ He crept out from his hiding place and snatched the seal skin she had cast onto the ground.
“When the sun rose and the seals began to hurry back into the ocean at dawn, the beautiful young woman couldn't find her skin. Desperately, she searched for it while the other seals waited in the water, calling out for her. But she couldn’t find it; without it, she was trapped on land. Now, the farmer came out from his hiding place with her sealskin in his arm, and the beautiful seal woman realised that she had no choice but to follow him.”
https://visitfaroeislands.com/en/see-do/inspiration-guides/ideas-for-exploring-the-faroe-islands/myths-legends/the-seal-woman
—Ria Tórgarð, “The Seal Woman,” Visit Faroe Islands
The rest of the tale is available at the above link.
Exceptionally enchanting is the realism of this piece made of bronze and stainless steel. While it may not have the poignancy and charm of “The Little Mermaid” by Edvard Eriksen, it is alluring, nonetheless.
Gonzalinho
MERMAID (1921) BY ANNE MARIE CARL-NIELSEN
ReplyDeleteThe piece is contemporaneous with Eriksen’s “The Little Mermaid” but inspired differently. Carl-Nielsen depicts naturalistically a creature of myth without attempting to humanize the chimera. Head and face are fish-like, narrowing in front with somewhat large, round eyes.
Gonzalinho
PANIA OF THE REEF (1954) BY ITALIAN MARBLE COMPANY OF CARRARA
ReplyDeleteThe sculpture depicts a winsome maiden, fresh, youthful, and touched by shades of Neoclassicism with fairy tale allure.
The piece was commissioned by members of the Thirty Thousand Club of Napier, New Zealand.
The figure is based on a character in Maori legend, a reef-dwelling sea nymph off the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. She secretly married the son of a chief but abandoned him never to return when her life was threatened.
“Pania” was shot in the head in 1982 but then restored. Do we see a pattern here?
Gonzalinho
THE MERMAID MYTH: HISTORY AND SCOPE
ReplyDeleteThe myth of the mermaid is a trope that goes far back in oral and written history. Although the scope of the myth is global, it is especially associated with island, coastal, riverine, and lakeside locations and societies.
“Images of human-fish hybrid creatures can be found from the third millennium BCE in ancient Mesopotamia, a geographical area relating roughly to modern day Iraq.
“The Apkallu, or the seven divine sages of Mesopotamian myth, can take the shape of human-fish hybrids. This is particularly interesting due to their connection to ancient wisdom traditions predating the great flood. In Mesopotamian literature, as in the Bible, a great flood event destroys most of humanity.
Apkallu figure: male with a fish-skin hood, Assyrian, c. 9th–8th century BCE. The Metropolitan Museum of Art
“As human-fish hybrids, the Apkallu were well-equipped to survive the flood and carry forward their wisdom traditions. According to Mesopotamian literature, the useful information given to humanity by the Apkallu included knowledge of medicine and building cities.
“The connection of mermaids to wisdom and medicine extends to other ancient traditions. In Southern Africa, mermaids play a complex role in ages-old healing rituals.
“The ancient Near Eastern connection between mermaids and Flood traditions can be seen in the illustrated Nuremberg Bible of 1483, where merfolk are depicted swimming around the ark with their merdog.
“Across the world and across traditions, mermaids have been accompanied by many different creatures. Their close connection to the sea extends to animals who share their home.
“As in the Nuremberg Bible, mermaids and seadogs are said to swim together in Inuit mythology from North America.
“In folklore from the Orkney Islands in Scotland merfolk are instead accompanied by seals, and are described milking whales.
“In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, mermaids are accompanied by dolphins. In myths from East Asia and South America, they are friendly with turtles.
“Similarities with the Danish fairy tale can be found in a famous story from South Korean folklore, dating to the 13th century CE.
“In the story, the mermaid Princess Hwang-Ok (also known as Topaz) marries a prince and becomes more human.
“The princess is homesick for her underwater life, so her turtle companion helps her to use the moon to turn back into a mermaid and regain her wellbeing.
“Turtles and whales appear with mermaids as helpers to the Mesoamerican storm deity Tezcatlipoca. The myth is an aetiological tale about the creation of music in the world.”
https://theconversation.com/a-long-and-fishy-tail-before-disneys-little-mermaid-these-creatures-existed-in-mythologies-from-around-the-world-204677
—Louise Pryke, “A long and fishy tail: before Disney’s Little Mermaid, these creatures existed in mythologies from around the world,” The Conversation, May 28, 2023
To be continued
Gonzalinho
THE MERMAID MYTH: HISTORY AND SCOPE
DeleteContinued
This article identifies the original mermaid as Atargatis, an Assyrian deity, in the year 1,000 B.C.E.
“The earliest mermaid tale comes from Mesopotamia, 3,000 years ago. It begins with the Assyrian deity Atargatis, a powerful goddess of fertility and protector of her city and its people. Storytellers say she fell in love with a shepherd named Hadad, whom she married. One day, she accidentally caused his death. In grief and despair, Atargatis fled to a lake, attempting either to drown herself to be reunited with her lover, or to take the form of a fish.
“However, the water was not powerful enough to conceal her divine beauty. Instead, she was transformed from the waist down, her lower half extending into a scaled, fish-like tail.
“Due to lack of evidence from scholarly sources, it is unclear whether this story is truly grounded in history. Whether by syncretism or conflation, Atargatis is given the Greek form Derceto, considered a form of the goddess Aphrodite, and connected to the Phoenician Astarte and Anatolian Cybele. Many folklorists today regard Atargatis as the first mermaid from which all the other tales descend.”
https://seawitchbotanicals.com/blogs/swb/mermaid-mythology-tales-of-sirens-selkies-and-other-sea-folk
—Sophie Swan, “Mermaid Mythology: Tales of Sirens, Selkies, and Other Sea Folk,” Sea Witch Botanicals, March 28, 2024
The legend of the merman dates much earlier to 3,000 B.C.E.
“The first known mention in human history of a human figure with a fish tail is from about 5000 BC, where Babylonian mythology of the god Ea described him as having the body of both a man and a fish. Ea was later known by the Greeks as Oannes, and by some Semitic tribes as Dagon.
“But clearly Ea/Oannes was not a mermaid.”
https://mermaidsofearth.com/on-the-origin-of-mermaids/
—“On the Origin of Mermaids,” Mermaids of Earth
The above website promotes a coffee table book, The Mermaids of the Earth (2017). It’s a colorful, fetching testament to human imagination.
Gonzalinho