![]() ![]() The sexiest female nude in all of the history of art is Manet’s masterpiece Olympia. With Olympia, Manet used the nude female form and his subject’s straightforward gaze to express proud, unrepentant female sexuality. If you pass by this sculpture (even behind its bulletproof glass) and fail to weep, you have no soul.įor more on the male nude in art, read our blog on the male nude in art today. The sorrow on the face of Our Lady and the repose in death of Christ, would break even the hardest of atheist hearts. ![]() Only Michelangelo’s Pietà in the Vatican in Rome rivals its elegance. ![]() This is no shrinking violet of an art piece. We are meant to stand before David in awe of his form and the artistic prowess of its creator. It is an overwhelming sculpture in the flesh and not a little homoerotic (Michelangelo’s sexuality is a matter of debate, which in itself, is of no real consequence to us). Anatomically perfect, with macho daring and a seemingly arrogant insouciance, David is every bit the hero, the warrior, the lover, the Man/God of western hubris. Michelangelo’s David stands seventeen feet tall and still, to this day, is our idealization of the perfect male physique. Oddly enough, the nude we most identify with the Renaissance is the male nude. That idealized realism remained the standard to which artists aspired throughout the Renaissance and beyond.įor a more complete history, check out our blog on the human body in art. The skill with which Greek, and later Roman, sculptors depicted the human form was matched by the beauty of the bodies that they chose to depict. In classical Greece, a celebration of the idealized - but mortal - human body also emerges, with sculptors capturing the (frequently male) body engaged in athletic pursuits. In the absence of written records, archaeologists and art historians can only speculate as to the purpose and inspiration for these objects, though in many cases they speculate that these nude figures served a ritualistic or spiritual use. Equally, a number of highly stylised human figurines have survived from ancient Cyprus, produced around 3900–2550 BCE. Thousands of years later, the Ain Sakhri figurine, created 11,000 years ago in Israel, depicted the entwined bodies of embracing lovers. But we can imagine that from the earliest history of art, totems to motherhood, childbirth and the beauty of the female nude probably existed. ![]() Its voluptuous curves evoke fertility and female power. The Venus of Willendorf, which dates from 25,000 to 28,000 BCE, is the earliest preserved image of the human form. Not surprisingly, the nude soon entered this very human technology of art. The oldest cave painting currently known in the Maltravieso Cave, Spain, is believed to be over 64,000 years old. In western art, at least, the nude has a grand tradition running from the ancient Greeks, through the Renaissance, to contemporary art with its myriad mediums and messages. Michaelangelo’s David is still one of the bravest and most realistic embodiments of the human form in art. If you wish to become a fashion photographer, for instance, studying the human body, producing drawings and paintings and even sculptures will absolutely, definitely, make you better. If you can render the human body perfectly in all of its complexity, you can draw any building, car, or ball gown. Not only for artists, but for architects and designers. In a life drawing class, students gravitate toward capturing the human body. What is it to be human? What is this creature conceived from dust and molded in flesh? How do we transfer the ineffable spirit of the human body into the stuff of chalk, charcoal, graphite, crayon, ink, paint, clay, wood, plaster, bronze and why? Why are nudes important?įor any new artist, the ultimate aim in drawing techniques has always been the human form. Is it any surprise that capturing the nude form has been the ultimate goal in art. What is more natural than the human body? Nude, the body is flesh wrapped in bone laid bare for the human gaze to contemplate. ![]()
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