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.
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Danseuse - Elancée II
Yann Guillon
Sculpture - 28 x 21 x 4 cm Sculpture - 11 x 8.3 x 1.6 inch
$2,623
Red Marble Woman
Paolo Guiotto
Sculpture - 280 x 40 x 40 cm Sculpture - 110.2 x 15.7 x 15.7 inch
$19,074
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María del Prado Aznar Navarro
Painting - 73 x 84 x 2.8 cm Painting - 28.7 x 33.1 x 1.1 inch
$4,778
Vertical Composition of Sex
Jorge Carruana
Painting - 135 x 100 x 1 cm Painting - 53.1 x 39.4 x 0.4 inch
$5,722
Mathilde
Guy Delaroque
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 50 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$834
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Elisabeth Cibot
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 65 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 25.6 x 0 inch
$1,729
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Mahujtoei (M.CH.R.)
Painting - 90 x 90 x 4 cm Painting - 35.4 x 35.4 x 1.6 inch
$1,693
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Koray Erkaya
Sculpture - 132.1 x 119.4 x 10.2 cm Sculpture - 52 x 47 x 4 inch
$9,900
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Gaulmier Jean-Luc
Sculpture - 92 x 55 x 20 cm Sculpture - 36.2 x 21.7 x 7.9 inch
$3,219
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Gilles Le Tron
Painting - 26 x 20 x 0.1 cm Painting - 10.2 x 7.9 x 0 inch
$209
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Gilles Cormery
Print - 27 x 20 x 1 cm Print - 10.6 x 7.9 x 0.4 inch
$1,133
The balance of the human condition
José Zaragoza
Painting - 100 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$10,729
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Vlada Hauser
Painting - 120 x 120 x 3 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 1.2 inch
$6,199
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Changzheng Zhu
Fine Art Drawings - 38 x 38 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15 x 15 x 0 inch
$149
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Liutauras Grieze
Sculpture - 60 x 100 x 40 cm Sculpture - 23.6 x 39.4 x 15.7 inch
$16,571
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Benjamin Georgeaud
Sculpture - 75 x 18 x 30 cm Sculpture - 29.5 x 7.1 x 11.8 inch
$9,537
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HIroomi Ito
Painting - 70 x 70 x 4 cm Painting - 27.6 x 27.6 x 1.6 inch
$12,118
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Gilbert Sabatier
Print - 53 x 41 x 0.1 cm Print - 20.9 x 16.1 x 0 inch
$238
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Alberto Savinio
Print - 37.4 x 26.5 x 0.2 cm Print - 14.7 x 10.4 x 0.1 inch
$3,100
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Michael Bastow
Fine Art Drawings - 100 x 70 cm Fine Art Drawings - 39.4 x 27.6 inch
$6,557
Emmanuelle
Ben-Ami Koller
Fine Art Drawings - 48 x 77 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 18.9 x 30.3 x 0.2 inch
$1,013
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Eric Ceccarini
Photography - 160 x 106 x 1 cm Photography - 63 x 41.7 x 0.4 inch
$17,882
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Bernard Fièvre
Painting - 100 x 50 x 1 cm Painting - 39.4 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
$2,980
Je ne vois pas la femme cachée dans la foret
Elina Dillmann
Print - 29.7 x 21 x 0.1 cm Print - 11.7 x 8.3 x 0 inch
$167
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Alain Vintenon
Painting - 65 x 63 x 4 cm Painting - 25.6 x 24.8 x 1.6 inch
$5,762
Figure Collection : Light Version
Leni Smoragdova
Photography - 100.1 x 150.1 x 1 cm Photography - 39.4 x 59.1 x 0.4 inch
$2,742
La Femme au centre du monde
Christophe Stephan Durand
Painting - 50 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,907
Le Nu au miroir (bordeaux)
Gérard Lecomte
Print - 66 x 51 x 0.2 cm Print - 26 x 20.1 x 0.1 inch
$238
Aunque usted no lo crea
Alvaro Barrios
Painting - 32.8 x 19.8 x 0.3 cm Painting - 12.9 x 7.8 x 0.1 inch
$4,500
Butterfly or Breast
Giuliano Bekor
Photography - 130 x 130 x 3 cm Photography - 51.2 x 51.2 x 1.2 inch
$14,902
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
$2,027
Ocean
Witold Pyzik
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 70 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.2 inch
$2,146
Two figures by the Sea
Martha Erlebacher
Painting - 162.6 x 132.1 x 3.8 cm Painting - 64 x 52 x 1.5 inch
$7,500
Solitude bienveillante
Françoise Benomar
Photography - 60 x 80 cm Photography - 23.6 x 31.5 inch
$2,265
Le bain
Olena Siniuhina
Fine Art Drawings - 24 x 18 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 9.4 x 7.1 x 0.4 inch
$95
Au coeur du Minotaure
Rachel Daireaux
Painting - 30 x 60 x 5 cm Painting - 11.8 x 23.6 x 2 inch
$3,576
Immersió 051
Oriol Texidor
Fine Art Drawings - 42 x 30 x 4 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.5 x 11.8 x 1.6 inch
$1,490
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Jean-Baptiste Mondino
Photography - 42 x 31 x 1 cm Photography - 16.5 x 12.2 x 0.4 inch
$8,345
L'ivresse du conquérant
Anne Procoudine-Gorsky
Sculpture - 200.2 x 200 x 200 cm Sculpture - 78.8 x 78.7 x 78.7 inch
$14,306
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Catherine Muguet
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 50 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
$346
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Joseph Colin
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 22 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 8.7 x 0 inch
$298
La ricerca del tempo perduto
Stefano Solimani
Painting - 100 x 90 x 4 cm Painting - 39.4 x 35.4 x 1.6 inch
$47,685
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Fenx
Sculpture - 102 x 48 x 28 cm Sculpture - 40.2 x 18.9 x 11 inch
$7,034
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David LaChapelle
Photography - 50.8 x 61 x 5 cm Photography - 20 x 24 x 2 inch
$7,908
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Sandrine Verdier
Fine Art Drawings - 59.4 x 42 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 23.4 x 16.5 x 0.2 inch
$536
Untitled
Enrique Grau
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$1,500
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Painting - 140 x 159 x 5 cm Painting - 55.1 x 62.6 x 2 inch
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