Human body
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Edward Vandaele
Sculpture - 70 x 76 x 40 cm Sculpture - 27.6 x 29.9 x 15.7 inch
£5,865
Nak D, Ana-Son
Nicolas Boutruche
Photography - 160 x 80 x 2 cm Photography - 63 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
£4,888
Nak D, Ash-Ana
Nicolas Boutruche
Photography - 160 x 80 x 2 cm Photography - 63 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
£4,888
Donna con colomba nel mano / Une Femme avec un oiseau
Giuseppe del Debbio
Sculpture - 63 x 24 x 24 cm Sculpture - 24.8 x 9.4 x 9.4 inch
£7,998
Donna con lunghi capelli / Une Femme avec les cheveux longs
Giuseppe del Debbio
Sculpture - 56 x 23 x 23 cm Sculpture - 22 x 9.1 x 9.1 inch
£9,776
Donna con mano su guancia / Une Femma avec la main sur la joue
Giuseppe del Debbio
Sculpture - 63 x 13 x 25 cm Sculpture - 24.8 x 5.1 x 9.8 inch
£7,998
Donna in verde / Une femme au vert
Giuseppe del Debbio
Sculpture - 58 x 26 x 26 cm Sculpture - 22.8 x 10.2 x 10.2 inch
£7,110
Figura che cammina / Une personne qui marche
Giuseppe del Debbio
Sculpture - 55 x 31 x 13 cm Sculpture - 21.7 x 12.2 x 5.1 inch
£9,776
Amanti con colomba
Giuseppe del Debbio
Sculpture - 62 x 35 x 21 cm Sculpture - 24.4 x 13.8 x 8.3 inch
£9,776
La Vie
Merry Kerpitchian (Merry K)
Sculpture - 50 x 40 x 30 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 15.7 x 11.8 inch
£5,155
La piscine n°3
Camille Brasselet
Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0 inch
£978
Excentricité ordinaire Hervé tatoué
Arnaud Baumann
Photography - 80 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0 inch
£2,933
Daphnée Etoilée
Klaus Roethlisberger
Photography - 70 x 53 x 0.2 cm Photography - 27.6 x 20.9 x 0.1 inch
£480
Delicate flowers
Natalie Shiporina
Painting - 70 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 27.6 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
£2,755
Hommage to Heinrich Fuseli
Renato Guttuso
Print - 70 x 49 x 0.3 cm Print - 27.6 x 19.3 x 0.1 inch
£489
Langue de danseuse
Arnaud Baumann
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0 inch
£2,577
Red pink water
Cristina Fontsare
Photography - 30 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0 inch
£533
Tropical Bath
Thomas Louvagny
Photography - 60 x 45 x 3 cm Photography - 23.6 x 17.7 x 1.2 inch
£578
End of the Market III (medium)
Jesus Torio
Photography - 84.1 x 57.1 x 0.2 cm Photography - 33.1 x 22.5 x 0.1 inch
£1,155
Risque 24-03-22
Corné Akkers
Fine Art Drawings - 21.1 x 29.7 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.3 x 11.7 x 0.1 inch
£2,763
Tant'è amara che poco è più morte
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 25 x 17 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 9.8 x 6.7 x 0 inch
£169
Riposiziona le tue vertebre
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 42 x 29.7 x 0.25 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.5 x 11.7 x 0.1 inch
£320
Prendi il secchio
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 30.5 x 36.6 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 12 x 14.4 x 0.1 inch
£267
Gynécée
Nicolas Boutruche
Photography - 110 x 110 x 2 cm Photography - 43.3 x 43.3 x 0.8 inch
£5,599
Equilibrium
Mihai Alexandru Haita
Painting - 100 x 80 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 1.2 inch
£2,284
The Appointment
Sue Rosalind Vesely
Painting - 120 x 80 x 3 cm Painting - 47.2 x 31.5 x 1.2 inch
£2,270
I felt I had become a different person
Ngahina Belton-Bodsworth
Painting - 21 x 56 x 3 cm Painting - 8.3 x 22 x 1.2 inch
£2,284
Spirit
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 23 x 30.5 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 9.1 x 12 x 0.1 inch
£107
Butterfly Effect
Rakhmet Redzhepov (Ramzi)
Painting - 110 x 80 x 3 cm Painting - 43.3 x 31.5 x 1.2 inch
£2,577
Behind the muse
Vakhtang Khelashvili
Painting - 90 x 120 x 2.2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 47.2 x 0.9 inch
£1,955
Flask 13 (Blue substance)
Dmitry Kawarga
Sculpture - 20 x 30 x 12 cm Sculpture - 7.9 x 11.8 x 4.7 inch
£4,976
Aphrodite 350 BC
Gavin O'Donoghue
Painting - 80 x 68.1 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 26.8 x 0.8 inch
£652
Man at Window
Anyck Alvarez Kerloch
Painting - 180.3 x 114.3 x 2.5 cm Painting - 71 x 45 x 1 inch
£2,529
H0427 – The crusher
Idan Wizen
Photography - 90 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0 inch
£444
F0488 – The surprising
Idan Wizen
Photography - 90 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0 inch
£667
F0564 – The dauntless
Idan Wizen
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0 inch
£1,600
F0500 – The dancer
Idan Wizen
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0 inch
£1,600
H0430 – The last one
Idan Wizen
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0 inch
£1,600
F0479 - The fantasized
Idan Wizen
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0 inch
£1,600
H0384 - The secretive
Idan Wizen
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0 inch
£1,066 £960
F0547 - The scared
Idan Wizen
Photography - 90 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0 inch
£1,066
F0555 - The duchess
Idan Wizen
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0 inch
£1,066
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.