Since the Greek Kouroi, women have been presented primarily to attract and satisfy the male gaze. They are portrayed naked to convey their perfected symmetry and proportion.
But the nude female reappeared in art with Botticelli’s reclining Venus and Titian’s Danae series. Peter Paul Rubens’ voluptuous female bodies gave rise to the adjective “Rubenesque.” And Francois Boucher set his erotic scenes in idyllic landscapes.
The Origins
The beauty of the female body has long been a subject celebrated by artists in many styles and eras. However, throughout history there have been times when depicting nude women was forbidden or discouraged.
The rediscovery of Greco-Roman cultural values during the Renaissance brought the female nude back into prominence in art. Figures such as Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (1484-86), Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus, 1510; and Titian’s Venus in Front of a Mirror (1538-55) challenged the traditional compositional rules of figurative painting and established new meanings for nude females.
Renaissance artists also experimented with depicting older, pregnant, and ascetic women – all of which convey very different meanings than erotic or sexualized images. For example, Titian’s depiction of the mature and pregnant Venus conveyed a sense of spiritual and physical vitality that is very different from the sensual power suggested by Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus or Edouard Manet’s Olympia.
Another early-sixteenth century work that suggests a more erotic interpretation of the female nude is Hans Baldung Grien’s Two Witches. Although depicting witches was a common topic in Humanist circles of the time, this piece is particularly provocative because the subjects are not portrayed as idealized, but instead as dangerous and seductive. This is further reinforced by the shift in palette to unnatural fiery hues, the addition of animal and supernatural familiars; a nasty creature housed in an alchemical vessel; and the storm symbolically brewing in the background.
Although women have been able to reclaim the female nude from its misogynist roots, they are still often portrayed as erotic temptresses. This is especially true for paintings depicting naked women in landscapes, which have been a tool used by women to reclaim their power from the patriarchy and the voyeuristic gaze of male spectators.
The Rococo
This is a playful style, characterized by effervescent colors and erotic imagery. It is the artistic filler between Baroque and Neoclassicism, and it focuses on a sense of light-heartedness.
The Rococo style was inspired by the Italian Baroque and the Renaissance, but it differs in its emphasis on decorative motifs and a more curved, feminine body. The movement also embraces more organic forms, and it celebrates a sense of fantasy. This was a period when women began to gain more freedom and rights, and art reflected these changes. Women began to move away from the stereotype of being a housewife and mother. The 1700’s brought us the beautiful Marie Antoinette and her carefree lifestyle, and it was a time of whimsy.
Jean-Honore Fragonard is perhaps the best known artist of this period, and his painting The Swing (c. 1767) is often taught in art history classes as a perfect example of Rococo style. It depicts a lady swinging just high enough to allow her lover below to catch a glimpse of her skirt in a show of playful flirtation. Francois Boucher was also a master of the style, and his Pastoral Concert (1762) is another example of how the style can be used to convey a sensual message.
The fashions of the period were influenced by the exotic culture of the Ottoman Empire, and this can be seen in the paintings of Madame de Pompadour. She was the mistress of Louis XV, and she helped to set fashion trends of the day. This is illustrated by her pastel pink dress in this portrait by Boucher, which accentuates her curvaceous figure and playful mood. The flowers in the painting also suggest a sense of fertility and growth, and this is a common theme throughout the style.
The Renaissance
The emergence of the female nude in art occurred during the Renaissance, which spanned the 14th and 15th centuries. Before that time, depictions of a naked woman were rare, and often seen as erotic or pagan. But the emergence of oil painting technology enabled artists to explore human forms in more detailed and realistic ways, resulting in nude portraits that were less erotic and more naturalistic.
Although the first nude female figure was probably a fertility goddess like the Near Eastern Ishtar, it wasn’t until the mid-fourth century B.C. that a Greek sculptor named Praxiteles made a free-standing naked Aphrodite statue, known as the Knidian Venus, that it became more common to see a nude female in artistic representations. After this, the nude form quickly gained popularity, and artists drew inspiration from classical antiquity, as well as from recently excavated sculptures.
One of the most famous examples of a nude female in an art work is the Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, which became a symbol for the Renaissance. This painting was groundbreaking for its time because it showed a woman naked in a scene of nature instead of as an allusion to the divine or a nymph.
During this period, idealized nude women such as the Venetian master Titian’s Venus of Urbino and the Venus de Milo epitomized feminine beauty. These paintings aimed to showcase the artist’s skill in capturing delicate curves, radiant skin, and graceful poses.
However, there were also some artists that used the female nude to convey erotic or political messages. For example, Hans Baldung Grien’s 1535 painting Two Witches exacerbated the misogynist atmosphere in his native Strasbourg diocese during which thousands of women were burned at the stake for being accused of practicing magic. It is in these types of works where we begin to see the dichotomy between eroticism and social commentary.
The Baroque
Throughout the 17th century, several women artists impacted art with their work. Whether they were the daughters, wives, or sisters of well-known men, these female painters proved their talent during a time when art was still a male dominated field. These five Baroque female painters — Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Leyster, Giovanna Garzoni, Lavinia Fontana and Mary Beale — were masters of their craft in a variety of different techniques.
The Baroque period, which lasted from around 1625 to about 1700, introduced a more dramatic and grand style to artworks and sculptures. Bernini was the leading sculptor of the Baroque movement, and his works include Judith Slaying Holofernes, The Chair of Saint Peter, St. Peter’s Baldachin, Las Meninas, and more. He also introduced new ways of displaying sculpture, elongating the form and boosting its presence in large spaces.
Another defining characteristic of the Baroque was a fascination with physical materials. The emergence of modern science, combined with the opening up of Europe to the importation of rare exotic materials, brought an interest in the nature of these objects. Artists began to use a wide range of materials, including enamel, gold and silver, porcelain, marquetry (laying veneers of different colored wood on furniture), and lacquer.
One of the most remarkable Baroque female painters was Maria Sibylla Merian, who dedicated her life to studying the world around her and illustrating her findings in paintings. Her paintings of flowers and insects reflected an inquiring mind that was willing to turn its discoveries into art, scientific knowledge, and practical applications. Fussli notes that if “female sex just had the opportunity to train and demonstrate its talents,… history would have far more outstanding female artists than it presently does.”
The Modern
Throughout modern art, the female nude is a symbol of the body and beauty. Artists depict her as sensual, enigmatic, and often scandalous.
In the early modern era, artists began to deviate from the classical ideal of beauty. The first documented female nude sculpture is the Venus of Willendorf, a curvy figure representing fertility. The Renaissance brought a new emphasis on seduction and a desire for nudity in women, which was carried through the Baroque era into the modern era.
Paintings of the modern era, such as Paul Cézanne’s Large Bathers, depict nude bodies with great attention to form. Other paintings, such as Lucian Freud’s reclining nude, showcase the female genitalia in a way that was shocking for the time. Other modern paintings, such as Alice Neel’s asymmetrical composition and Sylvia Sleigh’s gender reversed versions of classic works, challenge the traditional male gaze on nude artwork.
Even as the nude dominated art practices, women of color were disproportionately excluded from representations. The Renaissance idea of female beauty did not include women of color and this inequality continued into the modern era. As of 1989, less than 5% of artists shown in the Modern Art sections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art were women. PORTLAND —
While there are many interpretations of female nude paintings, it is important to remember that every artwork has multiple meanings and can be understood differently by different people. What is most valuable in an artwork is that it conveys a message or emotion that is timeless. This is especially true for the nude female, whose image continues to reverberate across history and continue to influence art today.