Human body
Save your search and find it in your favorites
Save your search to find it quickly
Saved search
Your search is accessible from the favorites tab > My favorite searches
Unsaved search
A problem occurred
Dans le dressing
Witold Pyzik
Painting - 240 x 120 x 10 cm Painting - 94.5 x 47.2 x 3.9 inch
€12,000
Le feu sacré, Noto, août 2022
Veronica Mecchia
Photography - 18 x 24 cm Photography - 7.1 x 9.4 inch
€600
(Un)happy Family
Matteo Nannini
Painting - 100 x 150 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 59.1 x 1.2 inch
€5,500
Acanthus, Noto, Août 2021
Veronica Mecchia
Photography - 24 x 18 cm Photography - 9.4 x 7.1 inch
€600
Vendedores de pájaros Diptych
Celso Castro
Photography - 68.6 x 101.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 27 x 40 x 0.1 inch
€2,910
Doigts de pieds en offrandre
Violaine Boisivon
Sculpture - 30 x 19 x 19 cm Sculpture - 11.8 x 7.5 x 7.5 inch
€1,300
Feeling, Painting, Oil on canvas
Andrey Chebotaru
Painting - 140 x 140 x 2.5 cm Painting - 55.1 x 55.1 x 1 inch
€9,847
Portrait of a boy
Anthony Roaland
Fine Art Drawings - 41.5 x 30 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.3 x 11.8 x 0 inch
€490
Towards the land of joy
Guido Argentini
Photography - 100 x 100 cm Photography - 39.4 x 39.4 inch
€9,000
Offrande Impie #2
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 76 x 56 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.9 x 22 x 0 inch
€950
Un fantôme, les ténèbres
Dan Solojoff
Fine Art Drawings - 38 x 28 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15 x 11 inch
€350
L'essayage des bas I (d'après Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec)
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Print - 76 x 54 x 0.1 cm Print - 29.9 x 21.3 x 0 inch
€180
Douces Ténèbres #22
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 56 x 76 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 29.9 x 0 inch
€950
Noire Tendresse #2
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 40 x 50 x 3 cm Painting - 15.7 x 19.7 x 1.2 inch
€1,750
Méandres
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 50 x 40 x 3 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.7 x 1.2 inch
€1,750
I've shaken off the dust of the lands
Melinda Matyas
Painting - 90 x 90 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 35.4 x 0.8 inch
€5,800
Don't Tell Mamma #17
Koray Erkaya
Photography - 119.4 x 81.3 x 0.3 cm Photography - 47 x 32 x 0.1 inch
€4,851
Self Touches #05
Koray Erkaya
Photography - 119.4 x 81.3 x 0.3 cm Photography - 47 x 32 x 0.1 inch
€4,754
RED! (Polyptych) #1-7-6-4-12
David Jay
Photography - 152.4 x 508 x 0.3 cm Photography - 60 x 200 x 0.1 inch
€24,254
Chejeru Diosa de la fertilidad. Cultura Piaroa, Venezuela
Antonio Briceño
Photography - 100 x 160 x 0.1 cm Photography - 39.4 x 63 x 0 inch
€6,800
El hombre y el mar
Amancio Gonzalez
Sculpture - 25 x 45 x 83 cm Sculpture - 9.8 x 17.7 x 32.7 inch
€7,000
Ce qu'il restait de ces murs fleuris
Xavier Jallais
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
€3,500
J'ai traversé tant de frontières
Xavier Jallais
Painting - 100 x 80 x 5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 2 inch
€2,650
Au fil des continents
Xavier Jallais
Painting - 100 x 80 x 5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 2 inch
€2,650
Captain’s Daughter
Olena Shtepura
Painting - 100 x 100 x 2.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1 inch
€2,500
Fluid amber
Constantin Ford
Sculpture - 60.96 x 17.78 x 20.32 cm Sculpture - 24 x 7 x 8 inch
€12,650
Fluid mirror
Constantin Ford
Sculpture - 60.96 x 17.78 x 20.32 cm Sculpture - 24 x 7 x 8 inch
€7,600
Modernismo M102
Giuliano Bekor
Photography - 130 x 120 x 10 cm Photography - 51.2 x 47.2 x 3.9 inch
€15,000
The ecstasy on the seventh heaven
Stefan Georgiev
Painting - 80 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
€3,300
Convergence
Boluwatife Victoria Lawal
Painting - 121.9 x 152.4 x 2.5 cm Painting - 48 x 60 x 1 inch
€6,791
Benji - Dance of sorrow
Willem Botha
Sculpture - 75 x 20 x 25 cm Sculpture - 29.5 x 7.9 x 9.8 inch
€7,000
Journey to the end of the dream
Danielle Le Bricquir
Painting - 81 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 31.9 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
€4,800
The scarf
Dimitar Voynov - Junior
Painting - 90 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
€4,800
Through time
Dimitar Voynov - Junior
Painting - 65 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
€4,500
Yes, Picasso
Dimitar Voynov - Junior
Painting - 70 x 70 x 2 cm Painting - 27.6 x 27.6 x 0.8 inch
€4,800
The blue wood
Dimitar Voynov - Junior
Painting - 68 x 78 x 2 cm Painting - 26.8 x 30.7 x 0.8 inch
€4,800
Morning in my garden
Anamaria Cepoi
Painting - 160 x 110 x 3.6 cm Painting - 63 x 43.3 x 1.4 inch
€6,622
Conception, The Liberations
Paige Bradley
Sculpture - 86.4 x 20.3 x 25.4 cm Sculpture - 34 x 8 x 10 inch
€17,463
Sur le rocher
Jacques Coquillay
Sculpture - 43 x 54 x 18 cm Sculpture - 16.9 x 21.3 x 7.1 inch
€10,500
Sisyphe IV
Patrick Strajnic
Photography - 50 x 50 x 1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
€1,290
Sisyphe III
Patrick Strajnic
Photography - 50 x 50 x 1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
€1,290
Nu abstrait N°23 - Monstera palace
Aurélie Trabaud
Painting - 136 x 91.5 x 0.1 cm Painting - 53.5 x 36 x 0 inch
€8,500
Women
Lucien Coutaud
Fine Art Drawings - 20.5 x 26 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.1 x 10.2 x 0 inch
€380
Corps métallique
Laurent Castellani
Photography - 100 x 70 x 0.01 cm Photography - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0 inch
€10,500
Erato, The Goddess (Blue)
Paige Bradley
Sculpture - 61 x 15.2 x 15.2 cm Sculpture - 24 x 6 x 6 inch
€9,798
Glo V GF
Patrick Strajnic
Photography - 100 x 100 x 4 cm Photography - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.6 inch
€1,290
Backlight / Lacération
Phil Skolle
Photography - 80 x 121 x 3 cm Photography - 31.5 x 47.6 x 1.2 inch
€950
Illumination (Third-Life) w/electricity
Paige Bradley
Sculpture - 47 x 67.3 x 33.7 cm Sculpture - 18.5 x 26.5 x 13.25 inch
€14,067
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.