Human body
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TV II. From the series Ser Cosa
Rodrigo Etem
Photography - 76.2 x 101.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 30 x 40 x 0.1 inch
$1,500
Ouverture
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0 inch
$2,899
Rusalka, Free floating in Ukrainian waters 28-02
Corné Akkers
Painting - 59.9 x 80 x 1 cm Painting - 23.6 x 31.5 x 0.4 inch
$6,231
Venus (medium)
Jesus Torio
Photography - 69 x 59.4 x 0.2 cm Photography - 27.2 x 23.4 x 0.1 inch
$1,438
A midsummer night's dream 05-04-22
Corné Akkers
Painting - 70.1 x 100.1 x 1 cm Painting - 27.6 x 39.4 x 0.4 inch
$16,143
Ode to Tamara de Lempicka 31-03-22
Corné Akkers
Painting - 60.2 x 80 x 1 cm Painting - 23.7 x 31.5 x 0.4 inch
$5,884
Roman Statue Study 5
Luca Artioli
Photography - 101.6 x 68.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 27 x 0.1 inch
$3,000
Roman Statue Study 1
Luca Artioli
Photography - 101.6 x 68.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 27 x 0.1 inch
$3,000
Act 6 | Home office
Grzegorz Sikorski
Photography - 80 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0 inch
$277
Act 4 | It all came out in the wash
Grzegorz Sikorski
Photography - 80 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0 inch
$277
Trésor protégé accessible
Christophe Vilar
Painting - 117 x 90 x 5 cm Painting - 46.1 x 35.4 x 2 inch
$6,639
I'm waiting for you
Iwona Sacharczuk Ivet
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,660
Femme Précieuse
Françoise Leblanc
Painting - 80 x 65 x 1 cm Painting - 31.5 x 25.6 x 0.4 inch
$1,095
Les Trois Grâces 1987 The Threee Graces
Reza
Painting - 49 x 34 cm Painting - 19.3 x 13.4 inch
$1,272 $636
Les Trois Grâces 1987 The Three Graces
Reza
Painting - 49 x 34 cm Painting - 19.3 x 13.4 inch
$1,162 $581
1986 Femme nue lovée 1986 Yellow Nude
Reza
Painting - 49 x 34 cm Painting - 19.3 x 13.4 inch
$1,383 $692
Gold Titan 1985 Sculpture murale
Reza
Sculpture - 35 x 18 x 3 cm Sculpture - 13.8 x 7.1 x 1.2 inch
$2,158
Titan argent nu au cube noir Titan Male nude
Reza
Sculpture - 36 x 15 x 3 cm Sculpture - 14.2 x 5.9 x 1.2 inch
$2,158
La fille aux ballons
Pierre Boillon
Photography - 80 x 60 x 3 cm Photography - 31.5 x 23.6 x 1.2 inch
$1,040
Jeanne d'Arc
Pierre Boillon
Photography - 80 x 60 x 3 cm Photography - 31.5 x 23.6 x 1.2 inch
$1,040
Mondi fluttuanti
Dores Sacquegna
Photography - 70 x 100 x 0.3 cm Photography - 27.6 x 39.4 x 0.1 inch
$1,660
Silhouette 5 - 1/1
Patricia Molinaro
Sculpture - 74 x 24 x 24 cm Sculpture - 29.1 x 9.4 x 9.4 inch
$1,084
Emballons-nous !
Idan Wizen
Photography - 60 x 90 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 x 0 inch
$1,494
Fairy under glass
Hollie Miller
Photography - 31.7 x 47.5 x 0.2 cm Photography - 12.5 x 18.7 x 0.1 inch
$1,051
Sisyphus
Hollie Miller
Photography - 47.5 x 32.5 x 0.2 cm Photography - 18.7 x 12.8 x 0.1 inch
$1,217
Untitled from series Naked 6
Oleg Tkachenko
Painting - 65 x 130 x 2 cm Painting - 25.6 x 51.2 x 0.8 inch
$2,213
Untitled from series Naked
Oleg Tkachenko
Painting - 65 x 130 x 2 cm Painting - 25.6 x 51.2 x 0.8 inch
$2,213
A giant nude
Agnieszka Staak-Janczarska
Painting - 91 x 50 x 0.2 cm Painting - 35.8 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$1,660
Aquarium Dolphin
Adina Apostu
Photography - 80 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$647
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.