Human body
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The Raven and The Dove
Donovan Rose
Painting - 122 x 152 x 4 cm Painting - 48 x 59.8 x 1.6 inch
£3,022
La tête
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 72 x 90 x 0.1 cm Photography - 28.3 x 35.4 x 0 inch
£1,311
The victory of Icarus (1) forbidden production (1)
Julien Delagrange
Painting - 200 x 140 x 0.1 cm Painting - 78.7 x 55.1 x 0 inch
£6,399
The Great Princess (XXL)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 160 x 213.4 cm Photography - 63 x 84 inch
£41,466
The Great Princess (XL)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 142.2 x 182.9 cm Photography - 56 x 72 inch
£20,733
The Great Princess (L)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 114.3 x 152.4 cm Photography - 45 x 60 inch
£12,440
The Great Princess (M)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 76.2 x 101.6 cm Photography - 30 x 40 inch
£8,293
Desperate Housewives (Marylin Monroe)
Kobalt
Print - 70 x 50 x 0.2 cm Print - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
£289
The man (after pina bausch) forbidden collage (6)
Julien Delagrange
Painting - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
£2,133
Figure Coalescing with Nature
Christian Frederiksen
Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 22 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.7 x 8.7 x 0.1 inch
£889
Cool and Reclined
Christian Frederiksen
Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 30 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.7 x 11.8 x 0.1 inch
£791
Figure in Nature (Primaries)
Christian Frederiksen
Fine Art Drawings - 17 x 15 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 6.7 x 5.9 x 0.1 inch
£773
French School - Portrait PS243 La Contrebasse d'Ingres
Bazévian Delacapucinière
Painting - 58.5 x 54 x 3.5 cm Painting - 23 x 21.3 x 1.4 inch
£1,244
Las tres columnas
Amancio Gonzalez
Sculpture - 53.3 x 15 x 65 cm Sculpture - 21 x 5.9 x 25.6 inch
£3,999
La marche légère
Guillaume Roche
Sculpture - 153 x 50 x 27 cm Sculpture - 60.2 x 19.7 x 10.6 inch
£7,110
Odalisque masquée
Mathilde Oscar
Photography - 40 x 60 x 1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0.4 inch
£800
Posing in the Garden
Dasha Pogodina
Painting - 100 x 90 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 35.4 x 0.8 inch
£1,066
Entre la multitud, estás solo tú
Salustiano
Print - 152 x 112 x 1 cm Print - 59.8 x 44.1 x 0.4 inch
£4,621
Nu debout de trois-quart face
Bertrand de Visme
Painting - 65 x 50 x 1 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
£711
Nu accroupi de trois-quart
Bertrand de Visme
Painting - 65 x 50 x 1 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
£711
The Splinter (l'Eclat)
Matteo Fieno
Painting - 100 x 100 x 4 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.6 inch
£880
Whispers of Eternity
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
£1,022
First wedding night
Anatoliy Stankulov
Painting - 90 x 123 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 48.4 x 0.8 inch
£8,887
Muscas, la reine des mouches
Mathilde Oscar
Photography - 90 x 60 x 1 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0.4 inch
£1,777
Le pur silence
Deville-Chabrolle
Sculpture - 46 x 38 x 30 cm Sculpture - 18.1 x 15 x 11.8 inch
£19,107
Demi buste femme 4
Hassan Laamirat
Sculpture - 73 x 40 x 15 cm Sculpture - 28.7 x 15.7 x 5.9 inch
£409
Bigfoot 100 5/8
Idan Zareski
Sculpture - 36 x 58 x 100 cm Sculpture - 14.2 x 22.8 x 39.4 inch
£39,992
Laocoonte. Série Introspectiva
Carmen González Castro
Painting - 73 x 146 x 2 cm Painting - 28.7 x 57.5 x 0.8 inch
£3,022
French School - PS 242 Sunflowers from Van Gogh Diving
Bazévian Delacapucinière
Painting - 55 x 55 x 3.5 cm Painting - 21.7 x 21.7 x 1.4 inch
£1,422
Green Lady
Christian Frederiksen
Fine Art Drawings - 12 x 17 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 4.7 x 6.7 x 0.1 inch
£551
Diverse
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 150 x 117 x 0.1 cm Photography - 59.1 x 46.1 x 0 inch
£3,644
Pound the earth
Sandi Goodwin
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.4 inch
£1,422
Passionate
Dan Holmqvist
Photography - 100 x 95 x 0.2 cm Photography - 39.4 x 37.4 x 0.1 inch
£1,750
La tourbière
Clémence Wach
Fine Art Drawings - 29.7 x 42 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.7 x 16.5 x 0.2 inch
£1,244
Nu à l'étang
Clémence Wach
Fine Art Drawings - 38 x 54 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15 x 21.3 x 0.2 inch
£1,066
Happiness loves silence, Spring serie
Olha Vlasova
Painting - 90 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
£711
Abel. Série Introspectiva
Carmen González Castro
Painting - 73 x 146 x 2 cm Painting - 28.7 x 57.5 x 0.8 inch
£3,022
Demi buste femme 3
Hassan Laamirat
Sculpture - 73 x 40 x 15 cm Sculpture - 28.7 x 15.7 x 5.9 inch
£409
Demi buste femme 2
Hassan Laamirat
Sculpture - 73 x 40 x 15 cm Sculpture - 28.7 x 15.7 x 5.9 inch
£409
Demi buste femme 1
Hassan Laamirat
Sculpture - 73 x 40 x 20 cm Sculpture - 28.7 x 15.7 x 7.9 inch
£409
The Winds of Change
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
£755
La déclaration - Sculpture bronze
Plaf
Sculpture - 16.5 x 9.5 x 7 cm Sculpture - 6.5 x 3.7 x 2.8 inch
£1,333
Annonciation en rose
Stephanie Larène
Painting - 80 x 120 x 1 cm Painting - 31.5 x 47.2 x 0.4 inch
£755
Untitled
Guy Ghazanchyan
Painting - 140 x 200 x 2 cm Painting - 55.1 x 78.7 x 0.8 inch
£4,355 £3,701
Jungle Madonna
Mathilde Oscar
Photography - 60 x 40 x 1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
£667
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.