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Nude Art

8,251 artworks, 1,657 artists
Nudes (fr. nu — “naked”, from fr. nudité — “nudity, nakedness”) or erotic art became an independent genre in painting and sculpture, in which the naked figure is the central object. Works of nude art represent the human body as an ideal of beauty in accordance with the traditions and tastes of the current period. Artists and sculptors express the canons of physical attractiveness that are popular in society and combine nudity and sensualism in their works. For centuries, nudes in art have been a reflection of the social standards of aesthetics and morality.

Critics consider the Renaissance the origin of the style, and the 17th century was the period when artists supported the ideas of sensualism and filled their images of the naked body with a sensual element. The Renaissance was the “finest hour” of the nude genre. Its elements can be found on the canvases of allegorical, mythological, literary and everyday subjects. Over the following centuries, nude paintings openly admired the aesthetics of the human body and served as the markers of what society considered ethically acceptable. In the enlightened 18th century, society and the Church considered it acceptable to admire the nude characters of ancient Greek myths, but it was completely unacceptable to contemplate the nudity of real women and men. The sexual revolution in the first half of the 20th century saved society from the severity of Puritan morality and lifted a ban from the sex themes, thus leading to the emergence of numerous unexpected, sensual and scandalous works of art.

Now, contemporary artists use a variety of techniques to create paintings on “juicy subjects”. Their subjects are women and men, and partial or complete nudity carries both an explicit sexual sensual message and an allegory. A group of drawings and canvases is distinguished, which art historians attribute to the “research of nudity”, where the central place is occupied by a realistic and technical image of the human body without background or subject matter Naked bodies in allegorical scenes are full of symbolism and hidden subtext; in mythological scenes, they are saturated with heroism and naturalism. Oriental cultures consider the nude images as an acceptable and mundane part of everyday scenes.

Nude paintings and sculptures:
“Aphrodite Anadiome”, “Venus of Urbino” 1538 by Titian; “The Birth of Venus” 1485 by Sandro Botticelli; “Naked Maha” 1805 by Francisco Goya; “Olympia”, “Luncheon on the Grass” 1863 by Édouard Manet; “The Origin of the World” 1866 by Gustave Courbet; “Iris, Messenger of the Gods” 1890 by Auguste Rodin.

Nude genre Artists:
Titian, Peter Paul Rubens, François Boucher, William Bouguereau, Edgar Degas, Pierre Renoir, Zinaida Serebryakova.
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