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
Flame
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 120 x 120 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 47.2 x 0 inch
£2,328
Pôle position
Petites Luxures
Fine Art Drawings - 29.7 x 21 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.7 x 8.3 inch
£800
Emmeline and the butterfly
Ottelien Huckin
Painting - 32 x 24 x 1 cm Painting - 12.6 x 9.4 x 0.4 inch
£750
Marche des Méréides
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 60 x 45 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 17.7 x 0 inch
£698
D'un Monde à L'autre
Luo Li Rong
Sculpture - 72 x 50 x 30 cm Sculpture - 28.3 x 19.7 x 11.8 inch
£19,552
Anais
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0 inch
£2,328
Life from wheels
Daniil Danailov
Sculpture - 70 x 40 x 32 cm Sculpture - 27.6 x 15.7 x 12.6 inch
£755
Panther Play
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 120 x 120 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 47.2 x 0 inch
£2,328
Le Minou
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0 inch
£2,328
Birth of The Sun
Irakli (Akuna) Kavtaradze
Painting - 100 x 80 x 4 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 1.6 inch
£1,955 £1,662
Il latte
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0 inch
£2,328
La tête
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 96 x 120 x 0.1 cm Photography - 37.8 x 47.2 x 0 inch
£2,328
Fish (a tribute to Magritte)
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 29.7 x 42 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.7 x 16.5 x 0 inch
£244
In my web
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 42 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.5 x 11.7 x 0 inch
£267
Treno
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 42 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.5 x 11.7 x 0 inch
£267
Puppet
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 42 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.5 x 11.7 x 0 inch
£267
Field of love
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 29 x 42 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.4 x 16.5 x 0 inch
£293
Nu III
Mirco Marcacci
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 30 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0.2 inch
£791
Nu IV
Mirco Marcacci
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 30 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0.2 inch
£791
Looking for the past
Stefan Hadzi Nikolov
Painting - 50 x 40 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0.8 inch
£1,289
Back and wig
Charlotte Yonga
Photography - 80 x 64 x 0.2 cm Photography - 31.5 x 25.2 x 0.1 inch
£1,955
My name is Red
Iwona Sacharczuk Ivet
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
£1,333
An eye to magnetism, Painting, Oil on canvas
Adam Parsons
Painting - 61 x 61 x 3.8 cm Painting - 24 x 24 x 1.5 inch
£3,151
6:47 - The finest hour, Painting, Oil on canvas
Adam Parsons
Painting - 50.8 x 40.6 x 3.8 cm Painting - 20 x 16 x 1.5 inch
£2,903
Manos con uñas rojas
Ernest Carneado Ferreri
Painting - 92 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 36.2 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
£1,155
Mujer De Espalda
Ernest Carneado Ferreri
Painting - 65 x 54 x 2 cm Painting - 25.6 x 21.3 x 0.8 inch
£711
Desnudo de mujer
Ernest Carneado Ferreri
Painting - 50 x 92 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 36.2 x 0.8 inch
£1,155
Male Nude V (29 Palms, CA)
Stefanie Schneider
Photography - 20 x 20 x 0.1 cm Photography - 7.9 x 7.9 x 0 inch
£311
Réflexion à l’oiseau
Guillaume Cavalier
Fine Art Drawings - 35.6 x 27.9 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 14 x 11 x 0.1 inch
£788
Guitare du Québec
Guillaume Cavalier
Fine Art Drawings - 35.6 x 27.9 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 14 x 11 x 0.1 inch
£788
Mère et enfant
Carl Albert Angst
Fine Art Drawings - 33 x 25 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 13 x 9.8 x 0.1 inch
£592
Fuen en El Louvre, Paris (Identity Assertions Series)
Imanol Marrodán
Photography - 45 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 17.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
£444
Nudity woman lyingt
Kouta Sasai
Painting - 130.1 x 161.8 x 3.1 cm Painting - 51.2 x 63.7 x 1.2 inch
£5,777
#19 From Un niño en el Chicle Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 62 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 24.4 x 0.1 inch
£1,659
#9. From La Piedra Sustituta II Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 65 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 25.6 x 0.1 inch
£1,659
#2 From "La Piedra Sustituta II" Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 65.3 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 25.7 x 0.1 inch
£1,659
#1 From La Piedra Sustituta II Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 63.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 25.1 x 0.1 inch
£1,659
Banc de sable
Lesya Rozova
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0 inch
£1,066
Les Acrobates VII
Uwe Ommer
Photography - 69.9 x 90.2 x 0.3 cm Photography - 27.5 x 35.5 x 0.1 inch
£2,903
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.