Human body
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Confrontation
Anthony Roaland
Fine Art Drawings - 64 x 46 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.2 x 18.1 x 0 inch
£429
Figure
Anthony Roaland
Fine Art Drawings - 46 x 64 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 18.1 x 25.2 x 0 inch
£286
Nude with Tropical Animals
Antonio Feltrinelli
Painting - 100 x 114 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 44.9 x 1.2 inch
£12,059
Nude
Anthony Roaland
Fine Art Drawings - 46 x 64.5 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 18.1 x 25.4 x 0 inch
£304
Nude of Boy
Anthony Roaland
Fine Art Drawings - 64 x 46 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.2 x 18.1 x 0 inch
£339
Two Friends Walking on the Beach
Anthony Roaland
Fine Art Drawings - 46 x 64 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 18.1 x 25.2 x 0 inch
£357
Boy on the road
Anthony Roaland
Fine Art Drawings - 46 x 64 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 18.1 x 25.2 x 0 inch
£313
Dancing under the blackest light
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 60 x 84 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 23.6 x 33.1 x 0 inch
£1,027
Living Melancholia
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 65 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 25.6 x 0 inch
£759
Le Globe
Changzheng Zhu
Fine Art Drawings - 38 x 38 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15 x 15 x 0.1 inch
£81
A Woman
Anastasia Kurakina
Fine Art Drawings - 17 x 13 x 0.11 cm Fine Art Drawings - 6.7 x 5.1 x 0 inch
£322
Offrande Impie #1
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 76 x 56 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.9 x 22 x 0 inch
£849
Les Ombres du Tartare #1
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 56 x 76 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 29.9 x 0 inch
£849
L'élégance désabusée
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 76 x 56 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.9 x 22 x 0 inch
£849
Intime résidence
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 76 x 64 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.9 x 25.2 x 0 inch
£849
Suffocation
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 56 x 76 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 29.9 x 0 inch
£849
Fièvre Rouge
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 40 x 30 x 3 cm Painting - 15.7 x 11.8 x 1.2 inch
£1,518
Jouir du Mal
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 76 x 56 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.9 x 22 x 0 inch
£849
The hand that feed
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 76 x 56 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.9 x 22 x 0 inch
£849
Carnality
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 40 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 15.7 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
£1,652
Flaying in darkness
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 56 x 76 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 29.9 x 0 inch
£849
Dancing until we are dead
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
£759
Confinement
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 76 x 56 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.9 x 22 x 0 inch
£849
Attente & Mélancholie
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 65 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 25.6 x 0 inch
£759
Please blow my mind away
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
£759
Le désir au fond des yeux
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 76 x 56 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.9 x 22 x 0 inch
£849
Les mains étrangères
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 76 x 56 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.9 x 22 x 0 inch
£849
Possession
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 76 x 56 x 0.1 cm Painting - 29.9 x 22 x 0 inch
£1,027
Venus with a mirror I
Fredy Escobar Vega
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 42 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 16.5 inch
£304
Ti regalo una moto
Giuseppe Gruciani
Painting - 43 x 75 x 1 cm Painting - 16.9 x 29.5 x 0.4 inch
£161
Rencontre dans le temps
Nathalie Decoster
Sculpture - 50 x 80 x 26 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 31.5 x 10.2 inch
£13,398
Fumée 22e1
Etienne Gros
Fine Art Drawings - 80 x 60 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.4 inch
£2,144
Mirrorscope 33
Maribelle Saad
Fine Art Drawings - 20.4 x 13 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8 x 5.1 x 0.2 inch
£199
N°22013 Hommes Taureaux Etude 3
Capton
Painting - 40 x 30 x 0.3 cm Painting - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0.1 inch
£179
N°22011 Hommes Taureaux Etude 1
Capton
Painting - 40 x 30 x 0.3 cm Painting - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0.1 inch
£179
The Poetress
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 55 x 42 x 0.1 cm Painting - 21.7 x 16.5 x 0 inch
£670
Les enveloppes - image 11/13
Sarah Salazar
Photography - 60 x 40 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 inch
£369
Tea Stained Collage - Recline
Kathleen Ney
Fine Art Drawings - 20.3 x 25.4 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8 x 10 x 0.1 inch
£278
La Chambre Verte - The Flow - 4
VAM
Fine Art Drawings - 24 x 18.5 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 9.4 x 7.3 x 0 inch
£313
La Chambre Verte - Spring - 1
VAM
Fine Art Drawings - 25 x 20 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 9.8 x 7.9 x 0 inch
£313
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.