Human body
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Anatomías descriptivas IV
José Fernández Morán
Painting - 48 x 67 cm Painting - 18.9 x 26.4 inch
$1,258
La tentation de Saint Antoine
Lionel Morateur
Photography - 60 x 160 x 0.5 cm Photography - 23.6 x 63 x 0.2 inch
$2,907
Grand baigneur aux bras ballants
FsT
Painting - 130 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 51.2 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$1,453
Rare Picasso
Freda People Art
Painting - 105 x 105 x 0.3 cm Painting - 41.3 x 41.3 x 0.1 inch
$1,677
TV II. From the series Ser Cosa
Rodrigo Etem
Photography - 76.2 x 101.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 30 x 40 x 0.1 inch
$1,500
Chemise
Maciej Woltman
Fine Art Drawings - 100 x 70 x 5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 39.4 x 27.6 x 2 inch
$1,453
Ouverture
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0 inch
$2,929
Parcours Desnos, Louise Lame, étude 2
Ernest Pignon-Ernest
Fine Art Drawings - 45 x 31 cm Fine Art Drawings - 17.7 x 12.2 inch
$22,360
Emotion of skin
Badriot
Fine Art Drawings - 26 x 21 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 10.2 x 8.3 x 0.4 inch
$894
Anvers
Ernest Pignon-Ernest
Fine Art Drawings - 63 x 38 cm Fine Art Drawings - 24.8 x 15 inch
$22,360
Ils sont nus
Isabelle De Luca
Fine Art Drawings - 66 x 86 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 26 x 33.9 x 0.1 inch
$1,118
Déchirure Dibond
Cédric Brion Studio Clavicule Pics
Photography - 90 x 60 x 0.5 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0.2 inch
$1,117
Pôle position
Petites Luxures
Fine Art Drawings - 29.7 x 21 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.7 x 8.3 inch
$1,006
Rusalka, Free floating in Ukrainian waters 28-02
Corné Akkers
Painting - 59.9 x 80 x 1 cm Painting - 23.6 x 31.5 x 0.4 inch
$6,674
The Lovers (medium)
Jesus Torio
Photography - 59.4 x 82.9 x 0.2 cm Photography - 23.4 x 32.6 x 0.1 inch
$1,453
Venus (medium)
Jesus Torio
Photography - 69 x 59.4 x 0.2 cm Photography - 27.2 x 23.4 x 0.1 inch
$1,453
A midsummer night's dream 05-04-22
Corné Akkers
Painting - 70.1 x 100.1 x 1 cm Painting - 27.6 x 39.4 x 0.4 inch
$8,111
Ode to Tamara de Lempicka 31-03-22
Corné Akkers
Painting - 60.2 x 80 x 1 cm Painting - 23.7 x 31.5 x 0.4 inch
$5,884
Roman Statue Study 5
Luca Artioli
Photography - 101.6 x 68.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 27 x 0.1 inch
$3,000
Roman Statue Study 1
Luca Artioli
Photography - 101.6 x 68.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 27 x 0.1 inch
$3,000
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
$391
Colin Maillard
Francis Bellanger
Fine Art Drawings - 62 x 39 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 24.4 x 15.4 x 0.1 inch
$1,901
Hope, Melancholy serie
Olha Vlasova
Painting - 60 x 40 x 1.5 cm Painting - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.6 inch
$783
The thinker
Zakhar Shevchuk
Fine Art Drawings - 28 x 20 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11 x 7.9 x 0 inch
$335
Mondi fluttuanti
Dores Sacquegna
Photography - 70 x 100 x 0.3 cm Photography - 27.6 x 39.4 x 0.1 inch
$1,677 $1,509
Silhouette 5 - 1/1
Patricia Molinaro
Sculpture - 74 x 24 x 24 cm Sculpture - 29.1 x 9.4 x 9.4 inch
$1,096
Trésor protégé accessible
Christophe Vilar
Painting - 117 x 90 x 5 cm Painting - 46.1 x 35.4 x 2 inch
$6,708 $6,037
Hommage to Heinrich Fuseli
Renato Guttuso
Print - 70 x 49 x 0.3 cm Print - 27.6 x 19.3 x 0.1 inch
$615
Art Deco Nude 23-08-22, Drawing, Pencil/Colored pencil on paper
Corné Akkers
Fine Art Drawings - 24.1 x 31 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 9.5 x 12.2 x 0.1 inch
$1,622
Model study, after Laure Albin Guillot - 25-08-22, Drawing, Pencil/Colored Pencil on Paper
Corné Akkers
Fine Art Drawings - 31 x 24.1 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 12.2 x 9.5 x 0.1 inch
$1,622
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.