While images of nude women are ubiquitous in art museums, when a female figure is portrayed naked outside the context of religious and mythological art, it can generate social disapproval. This tradition dates back to ancient times and was consolidated in the Renaissance.
By the late nineteenth century, artists such as Manet challenged this tradition to create incendiary modern artworks. Take, for instance, his 1863 painting Olympia.
Paleolithic Venuses
The earliest known Venus figurine dates from the Upper Paleolithic period. It was found in 1988 at the Galgenberg site near Stratzing in Lower Austria. This piece, called the Fanny figure by archaeologists, is one of the few carved figures of women from this period that has survived in its original state. This is probably because it was originally displayed in a cave or open air settlement as part of a shrine to the goddess of fertility. The figure is made of greenish, very shiny amphibolite slate and weighs 10 grams. It is believed to have been created around 30 000 BP, which makes it the oldest female figurine apart from the Berekhat Ram figure and the Venus of Hohle Fels ever found.
This statuette, referred to by some as the Venus of Willendorf, is widely considered to be one of the most important discoveries in prehistory and remains an icon of the human body and the art world. The figure, which stands less than three inches tall, is headless and armless but displays a very pronounced chest and clearly articulated vulva. Hurault, with satirical flair, named it the Venus Impudique or immodest Venus, in contrast to the classical Greek statue typology of the Venus pudica, which typically depicts a woman modestly covering her genitals.
Researchers theorize that these sculpted figures were designed as fertility symbols or primitive religious icons, although no consensus exists on their true purpose. Some suggest that they were merely dolls or even portraits of ideal beauty standards, while others believe that they were intended to symbolize the abundance of food and other natural resources in the surrounding environment.
These squat, female-shaped figurines are very well represented at sites in Europe and elsewhere (e.g., Rhine Danube: the Willendorf and Dolni Vestonice figurines; Italy: the Petrkovice Venus; Pyrenees/Aquitaine: the Lespugue figurine), although figures with slimmer waistlines also exist (e.g., the Kesslerloch Venus). In a study of a number of figurines that have been rated by subjects using Wilcoxon’s signed rank tests, significant numbers of participants interpreted them as being representations of middle-aged or young adult women.
Ancient Greece
The sculptors of ancient Greece viewed the human body differently than their contemporaries. Their sculptures are renowned for their idealization, and they were never shy to depict nudity. The male form was more commonly used, though. Males were praised for their power and strength, which allowed them to protect the city-states of ancient Greece. However, women were not seen in the same light. In fact, Greek society kept female nudity limited until the 4th century BCE when figures of Aphrodite broke the mold. Prior to this, the vulva had been equated with obscene.
The exhibition Defining Beauty in the British Museum examines the relationship between Greek sculpture and physical perfection. Dr Ian Jenkins, who leads the exhibition, says that although sculptors of the classical period were unashamed of showing off a man’s body, they lacked the same courage to show a woman’s. He points out that there is a clear parallel between the desire for flawlessness in Ancient Greek art and our own obsession with physical beauty today.
Jenkins goes on to explain that in the Archaic period, the kouroi (statues of athletes) tended to have a very idealized body shape. The limbs were curved, the shoulders and chest were separated by the ribcage, and the arms were in a slightly raised position to give the figure muscular tension. In the Classical period, the kouroi developed into more life-like and realistic figures, with an emphasis on the hips and buttocks. The weight was placed on the left leg and the head was not so rigid.
In the kalos inscriptions of the 8th century BC, men were lauded for their power and strength, but there are no examples of a nude female being depicted on a life-sized sculpture until the 4th century BCE when Praxiteles created the Aphrodite of Knidos. Before that, the only instances of a nude female were shown in art as part of her mythology or in contexts of submission and obeisance.
As the Greeks embraced their heritage and incorporated it into their own worldview, they began to view the male and female body in different ways. Heroic nudity was organic for the gods and heroes of antiquity, but it became more a matter of social convention for the men of ancient Greek culture.
Renaissance
A revival of interest in classical antiquity during the Italian Renaissance (initiated by the rediscovery of ancient Greek art) prompted artists to explore depictions of the nude body. This included not only female bodies but also male figures such as Hercules and Samson. For the first time in history, drawing of undressed models became a regular part of an artist’s training, not just in Italy but in northern Europe as well. The nude could signify innocence, eroticism, Christianity or biblical myth, classical myth or brute strength, and it was a rich source of ideas for many artists.
As a result, there was a proliferation of erotic nude females that explored themes of seduction, the world of dreams, and even same-sex desire. Such erotic works could be highly controversial and subject to censorship by the Church, especially in the case of prints.
In contrast, there was also a rise of humanist art that took on classical subjects with a less erotic focus. Venetian painters such as Giorgione and Titian created voluptuous nude paintings that were more naturalistic than earlier Roman art, relying on live models and respecting classical proportions. They also introduced a degree of abstraction to their works, allowing them to claim that their intent was intellectual rather than sensual.
Along with a greater interest in plastic beauty, the Renaissance also saw the growth of a new philosophy that was concerned with ideas such as the unity of nature and the human soul. As a consequence, artists began to see the nude body as a symbol of the soul. The Italian painter Fra Angelico, for example, portrayed naked figures of females with the bare arms raised in a gesture of devotion.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, it was also increasingly common to represent the nude body in religious art, a trend that continued into modern times. However, women of color were rarely represented in the same way as white females. As Charmaine Nelson points out, when women of color did appear without their clothes in European art, it was usually to reinforce ideas about the superiority of Europeans over non-European savages.
Mannerism
The Italian Renaissance brought a new level of sophistication to art and a revival of interest in classical models. Artists began to study the human body and use it as an important element in their paintings. This practice helped them to learn the proportions of the body and how to create a realistic figure. This influenced the evolution of Mannerism, an artistic style that emerged in the 1500s. Mannerism was characterized by distortion of elements such as scale and perspective. It was also associated with a greater emphasis on female nudity.
This type of figurative nudity was generally not considered erotic. However, a degree of sexuality was often portrayed in the painting in order to appeal to the male gaze.
For example, one of the most famous paintings from this period is Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. The depiction of a naked woman was extremely innovative for that time. It symbolizes the reconciliation of divine and mortal existence.
Throughout the centuries, artists have had many reactions to their depictions of the human body. From reverence and awe to scorn and disapproval, the depiction of the female nude has been a powerful symbol in the history of art.
For centuries, the depiction of the nude was a taboo. However, by the 1800s, this was changing. As the movement to women’s rights grew, artists were increasingly allowed to explore the nude body and portray it in a more explicit manner.
Some of the early Mannerist works that included a nude subject were Rosso Fiorentino’s Playing Putto (1518) and his Angel Playing the Lute (1615). Both paintings featured a red haired girl angel playing a small yellow lute against a black backdrop.
Another Mannerist work is a painting of two witches by Hans Baldung Grien. The paintings include a reclining nude woman and a demonic temptress with horns and a long snake. The women’s bodies are elongated and painted with cool palette tones.
Other Mannerist paintings were more explicit and showed the odalisque figures of the concubines of rich European men. These paintings exhibited a greater degree of erotic detail than the odalisque paintings created during the Renaissance.