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
Collection Purity - Un Anonyme Nu Dans Le Salon - HB1592
Idan Wizen
Photography - 60 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$337
Collection Purity - Un Anonyme Nu Dans Le Salon - HB1383
Idan Wizen
Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$337
Beatrix and Erika dancing in black
Milburn-Foster
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$7,641
Love nature, motherfuckers!
Mikhail Baranovskiy
Painting - 100 x 70 x 2.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 27.6 x 1 inch
$2,247 $1,798
Portrait of an Unknown Woman
Mikhail Baranovskiy
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2.5 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 1 inch
$1,573 $1,259
Sexy Snow Fragment #1
Maxime Andriot
Painting - 90 x 58 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 22.8 x 0.8 inch
$1,236
Flora and Fauna
Vasyl Khodakivskyi
Painting - 95 x 95 x 2 cm Painting - 37.4 x 37.4 x 0.8 inch
$5,618
La couleur de l'âme
Natacha Birds
Painting - 116 x 81 x 4 cm Painting - 45.7 x 31.9 x 1.6 inch
$2,247 $1,910
Stretched back
Emmanuelle Vroelant
Painting - 65 x 49 x 3 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.3 x 1.2 inch
$1,124
No16 SPIRIT Series
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 91.4 x 91.4 x 0.3 cm Photography - 36 x 36 x 0.1 inch
$1,669
N° 611 Il y avait de la buée.
R. Cavalié
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 65 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 25.6 x 0 inch
$247
Body ( by Man III B)
Eulogia Merle
Painting - 60 x 46 x 4 cm Painting - 23.6 x 18.1 x 1.6 inch
$1,310
Beatrix and Zsuzsa Dancing
Milburn-Foster
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$7,641
No43 SPIRIT Series
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 91 x 91 x 0.1 cm Photography - 35.8 x 35.8 x 0 inch
$1,657
The midnight espresso
Mikhail Baranovskiy
Painting - 100 x 70 x 1.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0.6 inch
$2,247
Collection Purity - Un Anonyme Nu Dans Le Salon - HB1371
Idan Wizen
Photography - 30 x 20 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 7.9 x 0 inch
$169
The Boomer Collection - HB3032
Idan Wizen
Photography - 30 x 20 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 7.9 x 0 inch
$169
Série Backstage - F0597 – The alien
Idan Wizen
Photography - 30 x 20 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 7.9 x 0 inch
$169
Figure Forgée 137
Philippe Olive
Sculpture - 137 x 20 x 30 cm Sculpture - 53.9 x 7.9 x 11.8 inch
$1,348
Dos féminin
Frédérique Maillart
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 20 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 7.9 x 0 inch
$539
Ninfa si bagna-Tuand studio
Giacomo Tuand
Painting - 126 x 65 x 2 cm Painting - 49.6 x 25.6 x 0.8 inch
$14,889
The memory of a carefree summer
Vasyl Khodakivskyi
Painting - 60 x 65 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 25.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,686
I'm not afraid anymore
Dasha Pogodina
Painting - 80 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$1,775
N° 825 La belle personne 2.
R. Cavalié
Fine Art Drawings - 56 x 65 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 25.6 x 0.1 inch
$225
Antique games. Antique drama.
Nadezda Stupina
Painting - 100 x 120 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 47.2 x 0.8 inch
$7,360
Histoire d'été
Volodymyr Kolesnyk
Painting - 100 x 85 x 2.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 33.5 x 1 inch
$4,887
Les bonnes manières
Herve Malcom Thomas
Painting - 89 x 146 x 2.5 cm Painting - 35 x 57.5 x 1 inch
$1,517
Discus thrower's torso
Barry Davies
Sculpture - 60 x 48 x 25 cm Sculpture - 23.6 x 18.9 x 9.8 inch
$1,641
Véronique Pastor, Les Eternels 13 juin
Véronique Pastor
Painting - 95 x 120 x 2 cm Painting - 37.4 x 47.2 x 0.8 inch
$3,371
Meli melo 4
Dominique Payen
Fine Art Drawings - 45 x 30 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 17.7 x 11.8 x 0.4 inch
$393
Meli Melo 1
Dominique Payen
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 45 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 17.7 x 0.4 inch
$393
Belisama L'envol
Philippe Buil
Sculpture - 36 x 34 x 14 cm Sculpture - 14.2 x 13.4 x 5.5 inch
$2,753
Rencontre d'un faune dans le silence de la forêt
Catherine Clare
Painting - 65 x 92 x 2.5 cm Painting - 25.6 x 36.2 x 1 inch
$1,854
L'air du grand large
Catherine Clare
Painting - 65 x 54 x 2.5 cm Painting - 25.6 x 21.3 x 1 inch
$1,798
In the shade
Mourad Cherifi
Photography - 30 x 45 x 0.02 cm Photography - 11.8 x 17.7 x 0 inch
$1,348
Vibrant célébration
Alexandre Moore Rockefeller
Painting - 109 x 125 x 0.6 cm Painting - 42.9 x 49.2 x 0.2 inch
$6,630
Morning Light
Aurélien Buttin
Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$1,011
Morning cigarette
Aurélien Buttin
Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$1,011
Erotic dream. The last dinner
Genia Sheyn
Painting - 60 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,427
Le bord de mer (Réf. 139)
Jérôme Mesnager
Painting - 55 x 46 x 3 cm Painting - 21.7 x 18.1 x 1.2 inch
$1,517
Liberté Au Coucher De Soleil (Réf. 200)
Jérôme Mesnager
Painting - 55 x 46 x 3 cm Painting - 21.7 x 18.1 x 1.2 inch
$1,517
The light and You
Samiran Boruah
Painting - 70 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 27.6 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$1,011
L'origine du monde (Namibie)
Vincent Citot
Photography - 40 x 60 x 1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0.4 inch
$843
Mathilde étendue
David Martin
Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$1,124
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.