Human body
Save your search and find it in your favorites
Save your search to find it quickly
Saved search
Your search is accessible from the favorites tab > My favorite searches
Unsaved search
A problem occurred
Syrinx et Pan
ADrÉ
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 30 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0.2 inch
$436
Oedipe et le Sphinx
ADrÉ
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 30 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0.2 inch
$436
Pieles 05
Ivanna Alejandra Sanchez Moretti
Photography - 40 x 30 cm Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 inch
$447
Pieles 02
Ivanna Alejandra Sanchez Moretti
Photography - 30 x 40 cm Photography - 11.8 x 15.7 inch
$447
Desvelando Gaudí 018
Ivanna Alejandra Sanchez Moretti
Photography - 40 x 30 cm Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 inch
$447
Desvelando Gaudí 02
Ivanna Alejandra Sanchez Moretti
Photography - 40 x 30 cm Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 inch
$447
Desvelando Gaudí 01
Ivanna Alejandra Sanchez Moretti
Photography - 40 x 30 cm Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 inch
$447
Nu de dos
Frédérique Maillart
Fine Art Drawings - 45 x 30 x 0.02 cm Fine Art Drawings - 17.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$447
Ignudo sul geremia nº2
Davide Ricchetti
Painting - 50 x 50 x 3 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 1.2 inch
$2,964
Ignuda sul gioele nº2
Davide Ricchetti
Painting - 100 x 80 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 1.2 inch
$3,635
Prière pour une nouvelle humanité
Sandra Encaoua
Painting - 40 x 30 x 0.1 cm Painting - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$532
Murakami TMF6
Giuliano Bekor
Photography - 102 x 102 x 1 cm Photography - 40.2 x 40.2 x 0.4 inch
$24,000
Le soleil, de plus en plus fort, brille et change ma couleur de peau
Audrey Faivre
Print - 40 x 30 cm Print - 15.7 x 11.8 inch
$185
Holding unto
Dzovig Arnelian
Photography - 40 x 53 x 0.5 cm Photography - 15.7 x 20.9 x 0.2 inch
$250
Zigzag Syndrome
Dzovig Arnelian
Photography - 59 x 40 x 0.5 cm Photography - 23.2 x 15.7 x 0.2 inch
$250
Despondent Motherhood
Dzovig Arnelian
Photography - 60 x 40 x 0.5 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.2 inch
$250
Intoxicated 4
Dzovig Arnelian
Photography - 60 x 40 x 0.5 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.2 inch
$250
Intoxicated 3
Dzovig Arnelian
Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.5 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0.2 inch
$250
Intoxicated 2
Dzovig Arnelian
Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.5 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0.2 inch
$250
Intoxicated 1
Dzovig Arnelian
Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.5 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0.2 inch
$250
Intoxicated Womb
Dzovig Arnelian
Photography - 40 x 42 x 0.5 cm Photography - 15.7 x 16.5 x 0.2 inch
$250
Corner Love 3
Dzovig Arnelian
Photography - 48 x 40 x 0.5 cm Photography - 18.9 x 15.7 x 0.2 inch
$250
Corner Love 2
Dzovig Arnelian
Photography - 55 x 40 x 0.5 cm Photography - 21.7 x 15.7 x 0.2 inch
$250
Corner Love 1
Dzovig Arnelian
Photography - 42 x 40 x 0.5 cm Photography - 16.5 x 15.7 x 0.2 inch
$250
Danseuse
Alessandro Montalbano
Sculpture - 95 x 44 x 36 cm Sculpture - 37.4 x 17.3 x 14.2 inch
$36,341
Femme allongée
Alessandro Montalbano
Sculpture - 46 x 116 x 46.5 cm Sculpture - 18.1 x 45.7 x 18.3 inch
$49,236
Petite pomona
Alessandro Montalbano
Sculpture - 129 x 41 x 33 cm Sculpture - 50.8 x 16.1 x 13 inch
$50,408
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
$2,684
She dropped the ball
Edward Zelinsky
Fine Art Drawings - 55.9 x 76.2 x 0.8 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 30 x 0.3 inch
$435
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
$1,286
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
$951
Les Moires
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 76 x 56 x 0.1 cm Painting - 29.9 x 22 x 0 inch
$1,286
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
$1,063
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
$1,063
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
$1,063
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
$1,063
Suffocation
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 56 x 76 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 29.9 x 0 inch
$1,063
Fièvre Rouge
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 40 x 30 x 3 cm Painting - 15.7 x 11.8 x 1.2 inch
$1,901
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
$1,063
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
$1,063
Carnality
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 40 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 15.7 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$2,069
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.