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
The luminous schoolgirls quartet : scarlet elegy of the tragical island
Hiro Ando
Sculpture - 58 x 53 x 18 cm Sculpture - 22.8 x 20.9 x 7.1 inch
$11,065
Antique games. Love story.
Nadezda Stupina
Painting - 70 x 90 x 2 cm Painting - 27.6 x 35.4 x 0.8 inch
$1,715
On est notre environnement
Aline Part
Photography - 60 x 40 x 0.2 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.1 inch
$664
My Ray of Hope
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 80 x 60 x 1.8 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.7 inch
$830
Vessel of sensations. Figure of a meditating woman.
Sve Gri
Sculpture - 14 x 12 x 10 cm Sculpture - 5.5 x 4.7 x 3.9 inch
$797
Spellbound
Anastasiia Danilenko
Painting - 109.2 x 88.9 x 0.8 cm Painting - 43 x 35 x 0.3 inch
$4,550
Domestic yellows III
Dzovig Arnelian
Painting - 26 x 12 x 0.5 cm Painting - 10.2 x 4.7 x 0.2 inch
$600
Domestic yellows II
Dzovig Arnelian
Painting - 26 x 14 x 0.5 cm Painting - 10.2 x 5.5 x 0.2 inch
$600 $540
Domestic yellows I
Dzovig Arnelian
Painting - 26.5 x 16.5 x 0.5 cm Painting - 10.4 x 6.5 x 0.2 inch
$600 $540
Sans titre (Un jour, une photo)
Aline Part
Photography - 67 x 50 x 0.2 cm Photography - 26.4 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$553
Lectrice sur bord de livre Elle
Carl Jaunay
Sculpture - 31 x 10 x 10 cm Sculpture - 12.2 x 3.9 x 3.9 inch
$2,656
Impressionist Ephemerisms N.4
Anna Levesh
Photography - 80 x 60 cm Photography - 31.5 x 23.6 inch
$874
Montagne Yogi 65-22
Philippe Buil
Sculpture - 27 x 18 x 10 cm Sculpture - 10.6 x 7.1 x 3.9 inch
$1,051
Neoflora Series 2
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 120 x 84 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 33.1 x 0.8 inch
$885
The hand of destiny
Mikhail Baranovskiy
Painting - 80 x 60 x 1.5 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.6 inch
$2,213
Portrait with Bird
Guy Ghazanchyan
Painting - 45 x 45 x 2 cm Painting - 17.7 x 17.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,106
Nude Carla Bruni a genoux, Harper Bazar
Philippe Robert
Photography - 110 x 82 x 2 cm Photography - 43.3 x 32.3 x 0.8 inch
$12,171
À contre-jour
Arnaud Ele
Photography - 118.8 x 84 x 0.1 cm Photography - 46.8 x 33.1 x 0 inch
$1,416
Neoflora Series 8
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 120 x 84 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 33.1 x 0.8 inch
$885
Neoflora Series 6
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 120 x 84 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 33.1 x 0.8 inch
$885
Neoflora Series 4
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 120 x 84 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 33.1 x 0.8 inch
$885
Neoflora Series 1
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 120 x 84 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 33.1 x 0.8 inch
$885
Exploflora Series No.65
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 110 x 206 x 2 cm Painting - 43.3 x 81.1 x 0.8 inch
$2,213
Exploflora Series No.29
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 111.8 x 203.2 x 5.1 cm Painting - 44 x 80 x 2 inch
$1,638
Exploflora Series No.28
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 111.8 x 271.8 x 5.1 cm Painting - 44 x 107 x 2 inch
$2,191
Ignorance 4
Mehnoush Modonpour
Sculpture - 58 x 48 x 48 cm Sculpture - 22.8 x 18.9 x 18.9 inch
$4,094
Ignorance 3
Mehnoush Modonpour
Sculpture - 59 x 46 x 49 cm Sculpture - 23.2 x 18.1 x 19.3 inch
$4,094
OMO: Untitled 15
Drew Doggett
Photography - 45.7 x 68.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 18 x 27 x 0.1 inch
$1,650
L'œil orangé
Arnaud Ele
Photography - 59.4 x 84.1 x 0.3 cm Photography - 23.4 x 33.1 x 0.1 inch
$752
The Norwegian Madonna
Nadezda Stupina
Painting - 100 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$5,411
Impossible behaviour-3
Galya Popova
Fine Art Drawings - 90 x 60 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$1,770
Louise dans un carton
David Martin
Photography - 40 x 35 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 13.8 x 0 inch
$775
Ballet dancer at rest - Ballerina painting + baroque frame
Domenico Ronca
Painting - 24 x 30 x 2 cm Painting - 9.4 x 11.8 x 0.8 inch
$332
Hausa and Fula cultures collide
John Kenny
Photography - 67 x 45 x 2 cm Photography - 26.4 x 17.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,620
Berehynia: Rebirth on the Meadow
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 30 x 60 x 1.8 cm Painting - 11.8 x 23.6 x 0.7 inch
$387
Maud - Abstrait nu N°9
Aurélie Trabaud
Painting - 40 x 30 x 1 cm Painting - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0.4 inch
$1,095
"Et la tendresse?" figuratif portrait acrylique sable sur lin 100x100cm 2021
Emmanuelle Vroelant
Painting - 100 x 100 x 4 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.6 inch
$4,647
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.