Human body
Save your search and find it in your favorites
Saved search
Your search is accessible from the favorites tab > My favorite searches
Unsaved search
A problem occurred
La madre
Dimitris Pavlopoulos
Painting - 159.8 x 150.1 x 3 cm Painting - 62.9 x 59.1 x 1.2 inch
$5,000
Cauchemars - Odalisque aux poissons
Lionel Morateur
Print - 50 x 70 x 0.1 cm Print - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0 inch
$309
Paris-Pékin
Marie-Madeleine Gautier
Sculpture - 68 x 38 x 50 cm Sculpture - 26.8 x 15 x 19.7 inch
$29,169
Muguet
Marie-Madeleine Gautier
Sculpture - 67 x 34 x 30 cm Sculpture - 26.4 x 13.4 x 11.8 inch
$9,536
Feeling, Painting, Oil on canvas
Andrey Chebotaru
Painting - 140 x 140 x 2.5 cm Painting - 55.1 x 55.1 x 1 inch
$5,150
1984 Hommage a Schiele Tribute 2
Simão Da Silva
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 30 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 11.8 inch
$1,963
Lovers 10 Amoureux
Simão Da Silva
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 30 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 11.8 inch
$1,963
Lovers 7 Amoureux
Simão Da Silva
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 30 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 11.8 inch
$1,963
Lovers 6 Amoureux
Simão Da Silva
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 30 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0.2 inch
$1,963
NUDE Lovers 3
Simão Da Silva
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 30 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 11.8 inch
$1,963
NUDE Lovers 2
Simão Da Silva
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 30 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 11.8 inch
$1,907
In our Intimate Moments - 05
Bruno Palisson
Photography - 80 x 80 cm Photography - 31.5 x 31.5 inch
$1,458
Le Réveil
Carlos Antonio Sablon Perez
Painting - 116 x 89 x 4 cm Painting - 45.7 x 35 x 1.6 inch
$11,556 $9,822
Series: The skin of Mars - Skin 6
Antonio Briceño
Photography - 60 x 50 cm Photography - 23.6 x 19.7 inch
$2,805
Series: The skin of Mars - Skin 16
Antonio Briceño
Photography - 60 x 60 cm Photography - 23.6 x 23.6 inch
$3,029
Series: The skin of Mars - Skin 11
Antonio Briceño
Photography - 60 x 40 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 inch
$2,805
Series: The skin of Mars - Skin 12
Antonio Briceño
Photography - 55 x 43 cm Photography - 21.7 x 16.9 inch
$2,468
Series: The skin of Mars - Skin 5
Antonio Briceño
Photography - 60 x 80 cm Photography - 23.6 x 31.5 inch
$3,927
Series: The skin of Mars - Skin 18
Antonio Briceño
Photography - 80 x 60 cm Photography - 31.5 x 23.6 inch
$3,927
Series: The skin of Mars - Skin 1
Antonio Briceño
Photography - 60 x 80 cm Photography - 23.6 x 31.5 inch
$3,927
Pavarti Impromptue
Philippe Buil
Sculpture - 40 x 22 x 11 cm Sculpture - 15.7 x 8.7 x 4.3 inch
$1,066
Morning music
Gevorg Martirosyan
Painting - 60 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$6,800 $5,780
Triptyque rose
Thalia Dalecky
Fine Art Drawings - 42 x 89.1 x 0.02 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.5 x 35.1 x 0 inch
$1,571
Before dusk sets in
Melinda Matyas
Painting - 60 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$3,927
Toward the edge
William Oxer F.R.S.A.
Painting - 40.6 x 30.5 x 2.5 cm Painting - 16 x 12 x 1 inch
$3,200
Silk road souvenir
Melinda Matyas
Painting - 60 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$3,702
Madone à l'eventail
Volodia Popov
Painting - 100 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$10,658
Untitled 13
Boshra Mustafa
Fine Art Drawings - 26 x 28 x 1.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 10.2 x 11 x 0.6 inch
$700
Untitled 12
Boshra Mustafa
Fine Art Drawings - 26 x 26 x 1.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 10.2 x 10.2 x 0.6 inch
$600
Untitled 11
Boshra Mustafa
Fine Art Drawings - 33 x 28 x 1.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 13 x 11 x 0.6 inch
$700
Untitled 10
Boshra Mustafa
Fine Art Drawings - 34 x 26 x 1.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 13.4 x 10.2 x 0.6 inch
$700
Untitled 8
Boshra Mustafa
Fine Art Drawings - 26 x 26 x 1.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 10.2 x 10.2 x 0.6 inch
$600
Untitled 6
Boshra Mustafa
Fine Art Drawings - 26 x 27 x 1.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 10.2 x 10.6 x 0.6 inch
$700
Untitled 3
Boshra Mustafa
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 30 x 2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0.8 inch
$700
Untitled
Francesc Genovés
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 65 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 25.6 x 0 inch
$623
Tall Woman On Short Canvas
Andrea Vandoni
Painting - 60 x 120 x 4 cm Painting - 23.6 x 47.2 x 1.6 inch
$3,478 $2,956
La fuite du cheval Bayard
Edward Vandaele
Sculpture - 130 x 130 x 130 cm Sculpture - 51.2 x 51.2 x 51.2 inch
$66,192
Mujer Triste con Pañuelo Rojo
Alberto Ascaso
Sculpture - 98 x 21 x 20 cm Sculpture - 38.6 x 8.3 x 7.9 inch
$13,463
Chimères sur fond rouge
Ludovic Isidore
Painting - 65 x 54 x 2 cm Painting - 25.6 x 21.3 x 0.8 inch
$2,019
ConCoscienza, Selfportrait
Chiara Mazzocchi
Photography - 50 x 70 x 0.3 cm Photography - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.1 inch
$555
Two guitars
Rakhmet Redzhepov (Ramzi)
Painting - 100 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$3,927
Granollers, fulla baixa
Eduardo Arranz-Bravo
Print - 73.5 x 55 x 0.1 cm Print - 28.9 x 21.7 x 0 inch
$617
La piscine
Camille Brasselet
Photography - 50 x 75 x 0.1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 29.5 x 0 inch
$1,515
Breast print 16
Dzovig Arnelian
Painting - 17.5 x 18.5 x 0.3 cm Painting - 6.9 x 7.3 x 0.1 inch
$250
Human body
'I wanted to conquer the world. But I also desperately wanted to understand human nature, and to know what was inside our bodies. To do this, I have spent whole night dissecting bodies, against the direct orders of the Pope. Nothing disgusts me. What I am looking for, truly, in all of my work and particularly in my painting, what I have looked for all my life, is to understand the mystery that is human nature' – from the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci in the 16th century.
At the time of writing these notes, da Vinci had already made greater understanding of the human body the primary objective of his investigations. Dissection and study were key to his development of a holistic knowledge of anatomy, which da Vinci believed was vital to the perfect rendering of the nude figures which he painted and drew.
Little by little, the traditional image of the human figure was uprooted and in its place new ways of interpreting the body developed. Contemporary artists relentlessly questioned the traditional codes of figure drawing, liberally reworking the representation of the body to create a new image that was dislocated, geometric, deformed and disfigured.
The body as an artistic subject is at once desired, fantasised, dreamt, transformed, deformed. For painters, photographers and sculptors alike the body represents a rite of passage in their artistic development. Many people say that they most appreciate the talents of an artists by way of their control over the complexity of the figure. For example, it's clear even in Matisse's later, more abstract collages that he had perfectly mastered the human form.
Representation of the body is fundamental to Western art: first and foremost because it suggests a representation of the self, and therefore affirms the artist's own existence and coexistence with the environment that surrounds them. At the beginning of art history, the only bodies represented were the gods, supernatural beings, and spirits who had taken on human form. The body, nude or clothed, is at once one of the most widely depicted and most deeply polemical subjects in Western art (think of the scandals provoked by Courbet's 'Origins of the World', or Renoir's 'Picnic on the Grass').
The body has always been the primary subject of an array of themes, and its history is rich and ancient. Initially, depiction of the body was closely linked to religion, where the Word became flesh in Genesis, but later in more secular times the arousal of the artist when faced with the body made for an equally popular theme. Latterly the notion of the body as an object of beauty was subverted by Cubism until depictions of bodies no longer bore any resemblance to reality or made any pretence of respecting the rules of proportion.
Finally, in modern art the body has taken on an abstract shape within space, becoming one with the environment. In some instances, the body has become the artist's own support, as with Klein's models. The body as an abstract concept is tangible in many different manifestations in art, even in pieces as unassuming as some of Rothko's paintings. It remains the subject of inexhaustible inspiration and eternal debate.