A woman’s naked body can evoke strong emotions that can range from vulnerability to power. These paintings convey these complex feelings as well as celebrate the beauty of the human body.
Today, nude women appear in art museums, advertisements, and films. However, the image of a nude female still carries social disapproval.
The Evolution of the Nude
The nude has been a central motif in art throughout history. While the naked human figure might seem commonplace in everyday life – from the bath to the boudoir – artists have used it to express more than just their own sense of beauty and power. The nude has been a symbol of femininity, the natural world and social and religious beliefs.
Early on, female nudes mainly depicted mythological goddesses and female fertility deities. As time went by, however, the nude as a theme became increasingly popular. This was especially true during the High Renaissance and a period of rediscovery of antiquity. This is when the Venus of Urbino, by Titian, came to prominence and set new compositional rules for painting female nudes. Later, the sitters in the paintings by Velazquez and Vermeer would also become iconic.
Even though artists like Clement and Manet were heavily influenced by the Renaissance style and academic tradition, nude women started to take on a different form. The nude was gradually sexualised, and this ushered in the male gaze. Artists such as Picasso and Rodin are known for their sexy female nudes which were conceived as artworks for men to admire.
In the 19th century, French art underwent a radical transformation. It is during this time that the neoclassical styles and academic traditions came head-to-head with the modernism of the Impressionists and other avant-garde movements. The resulting movement was the most dramatic and revolutionary shift in artistic representations of the nude body since ancient times.
A perfect example is the nude portrait of Nana, a fictional character created by Emile Zola and depicted in numerous works including Edouard Manet’s ‘Le déjeuner sur l’herbe’. The painting is a sexy, seductive image of a young courtesan with her hair down and exuding a certain sensuousness.
In the same way that this sexy and sexualised nude portrait was a precursor to modernism, so too were the images of the naked body by Joan Coderch and Javier Malavia. They combine a figurative approach with an ethereal beauty to capture fleeting moments and natural light. Their nude sculptures often explore themes such as theatre, mythology and theater with a delicate sensibility.
Artists’ Representations of the Nude
As the human body is so universal and fascinating, the nude has been a subject that many artists have chosen to explore in their works. While some artists have been punished or even banned for depicting it, others have gained admiration and recognition for their daring pieces. There are many different interpretations of the female nude but, ultimately, it all boils down to what the artwork means to its audience.
Nude paintings have often been used as a way to explore aesthetic principles, composition, and the interplay of light and shadow. For example, the Venetian master Titian’s Birth of Venus demonstrates how the nude can be used to convey both divinity and carnality. The goddess of love is surrounded by her lovers, Zephyr and the nymph Chloris, who represent heavenly and earthly love. The pose of the goddess grabs the viewer’s attention, and her bare hands and hair hint at her fleshiness.
For centuries, artists have struggled with how to represent the female body. As time went on, the sensitivity of society changed and it became more acceptable to portray the nude. In the 19th century, painters such as Edouard Manet and Gustave Courbet challenged conventional standards of beauty and morality. Manet’s “Olympia” is a portrait of a naked woman that reclining, unashamedly looking at the viewer. This provocative piece is a perfect example of how the nude can be used to shock and challenge.
Other artists portrayed more traditional nudes, such as the French painter Ingres’s Odalisque. This painting depicts a female nude with frank eroticism but is still held in high esteem today. Ingres drew inspiration from the Oriental art and culture of his time and managed to make his work look sophisticated, refined and beautiful.
Other artists, like Egon Schiele, were a part of the Expressionist movement that sprang from the rage against Victorian morality. His paintings are often erotic and show a deep fascination for the human body. In one of his works, he shows a reclining figure with her breasts exposed and twisted in an almost disturbing manner. His use of sickly colors also adds to the eeriness of this painting.
The History of the Nude in Art
The nude figure has long been a major preoccupation for artists. It was a significant motif in Ancient Greek art and, after a dormant period during the Middle Ages, it returned to prominence with the Renaissance. One of the most famous paintings depicting a female nude is Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. While this painting does not explicitly depict a sexual nature, it externalizes female eroticism and is considered a groundbreaking work.
Sculpture also plays an important role in the history of nude art. In the Palaeolithic era, around 28,000-25,000 years ago, humans started to depict the human body in sculpture. The earliest recorded sculpture of a woman, called the Venus of Willendorf, was thought to be a fertility deity similar to the Greek sculptors. Later, a number of sculptures were created in the style of Ancient Greece, such as the erotic Apollo Belvedere statue and the famous Hellenistic masterpiece of the Winged Victory of Samothrace.
The Renaissance brought a new interest in plastic beauty and a rediscovery of Antiquity. Artists began to pay closer attention to anatomy, creating more realistic works that emphasized the proportions of a model’s musculature. The nude became a central theme in Renaissance art, particularly when it was portrayed as part of idealized feminine forms. This idealized and perfect form can be seen in a number of works, including Michelangelo’s David and Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man.
After the Renaissance, the representation of a nude body became increasingly controversial. Gustave Courbet’s The Origin of the World, painted in 1866, caused a scandal because it showed the female vagina. It was a bold and daring depiction of the nude that rejected traditional academic painting and its idyllic and idealized representations of the body.
Impressionist painters also revisited the nude as an artistic medium. By removing the edges of a subject and using vivid colors, they created a more modern interpretation of the female body. In the 21st century, nude figures are still widely used by contemporary artists to raise awareness for major popular causes, especially regarding gender and sex issues. This is particularly true for works by women artists, such as Marina Abramovic and Yoko Ono.
The Birth of the Nude
The nude figure has occupied a special place in Western art. Unlike figures wearing clothes, who relate to everyday life and work, the naked body is symbolic of an ideal of beauty that is deeply rooted in formal traditions, philosophical concerns, and cultural values.
For centuries, the depiction of naked bodies was an essential element in classical art. The Renaissance sculptors brought both male and female nude bodies back into classical art, with Donatello’s naked David and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus being prime examples. The depiction of the nude continued into the 17th century and beyond, with artists refashioning classical ideals while pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable in art.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, artists reworked the concept of the female nude to evoke a sense of power and seduction. Edouard Manet’s, ‘Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe’ and Gustave Courbet’s, ‘Woman with a Parrot’ are two such examples of female nude paintings that were considered sexy, if not salacious, by their audiences at the time. The sexualisation of the female nude was even more prevalent in the 19th century, with works like Alexandre Cabanel’s, ‘The Bather’ and Gustave Courbet’s, ‘Woman with a Parrot’ scandalising contemporary morals.
By the beginning of the 20th century, artists had started to turn away from idealisation and sexualisation in their portrayals of the human form. Painters such as Lucian Freud used their work to explore the human body in its natural state, and his approach was influential on later artists, including British artist, Jenny Saville.
As the 21st century continues, artistic interpretations of the nude continue to change and evolve, reflecting a wide range of social, political, and economic influences. Although there is still a tendency to sexualise the female nude, there has also been an increased focus on portraying women in a variety of positions and poses. Whether it’s as an object of desire or for the sake of scientific study, the depiction of naked bodies in art continues to be an important and fascinating aspect of Western culture. This course looks at the changing, culturally-influenced concept of beauty in the Western world through the history of nude oil painting.