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
The rescue of El Cid's daughters
David Carey
Photography - 46 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 18.1 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$111
De la Serie Las Piadosas
Enriqueta Aguiló
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$4,095
Fashion shoot for Jalouse. A life guard, Cuba
Martin Parr
Photography - 86 x 61 x 1 cm Photography - 33.9 x 24 x 0.4 inch
$7,629
Medu'see
FabEnt (Fabrice Entemeyer)
Sculpture - 13.5 x 11 x 18 cm Sculpture - 5.3 x 4.3 x 7.1 inch
$673
Pixelated young torso
Miguel Guía
Sculpture - 44.5 x 17 x 11 cm Sculpture - 17.5 x 6.7 x 4.3 inch
$1,858
Nu féminin dansant
Frédérique Maillart
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 25 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 9.8 x 0 inch
$444
El salto II
Amancio Gonzalez
Sculpture - 43 x 15 x 57.5 cm Sculpture - 16.9 x 5.9 x 22.6 inch
$5,049
El lugar que habito III
Amancio Gonzalez
Sculpture - 54 x 22 x 77 cm Sculpture - 21.3 x 8.7 x 30.3 inch
$4,824
Brigitte et ciseaux
Jean-Pierre Le Boul'ch
Painting - 93 x 74 x 2 cm Painting - 36.6 x 29.1 x 0.8 inch
$3,590
Nu bleu assis aux poires
Stephanie Larène
Painting - 68 x 48 x 1 cm Painting - 26.8 x 18.9 x 0.4 inch
$886
Ajala Travel 2
Abdulateef Salaudeen
Painting - 121.9 x 91.4 x 2.5 cm Painting - 48 x 36 x 1 inch
$2,500
Hercule & Cotton Candy Light Design
Dervis Akdemir
Sculpture - 90 x 55 x 25 cm Sculpture - 35.4 x 21.7 x 9.8 inch
$2,290
Miss Shrimp and grits
Marian Smith
Painting - 30.5 x 40.6 x 3 cm Painting - 12 x 16 x 1.2 inch
$1,458
Guerrero herido
Amancio Gonzalez
Sculpture - 29.5 x 48.5 x 31 cm Sculpture - 11.6 x 19.1 x 12.2 inch
$5,722
She received a kiss in the soul
Reinaldo Chavez
Painting - 27.5 x 22 x 0.3 cm Painting - 10.8 x 8.7 x 0.1 inch
$325
Éclat de cosmos
Charles Bayonne
Photography - 50 x 50 x 5 cm Photography - 19.7 x 19.7 x 2 inch
$785
The Bunny In The Window (1)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 76.2 x 58.4 cm Photography - 30 x 23 inch
$5,000
The Bunny In The Window
Tyler Shields
Photography - 50.8 x 38.1 cm Photography - 20 x 15 inch
$2,500
La Salamandre - Série Matière et corps de femme
Karine Azoulay (1kazou)
Painting - 100 x 81 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.9 x 0.8 inch
$2,805
Aurora di michelangelo
Davide Ricchetti
Painting - 37 x 26.5 x 0.5 cm Painting - 14.6 x 10.4 x 0.2 inch
$898
Choice with whom to be. 2.. What do you see here What could it be
Tetiana Kalivoshko
Painting - 152.4 x 121.9 x 5.1 cm Painting - 60 x 48 x 2 inch
$8,500
Once Upon a Moonlit Night
Rakhmet Redzhepov (Ramzi)
Painting - 80 x 110 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 43.3 x 0.8 inch
$5,497
Paruyr Sevak- Echoes of memory
Artush Voskanyan
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$10,000
Collection Liberty - HB1787
Idan Wizen
Photography - 60 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$561
Collection Liberty - HB1606
Idan Wizen
Photography - 90 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$841
The Boomer Collection - HB3077
Idan Wizen
Photography - 60 x 90 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 x 0 inch
$841
French School - PS 239 Sed Non Satiata - Impressionist
Bazévian Delacapucinière
Painting - 100 x 81 x 2.8 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.9 x 1.1 inch
$3,927
Juliette
Guy Delaroque
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 50 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$785
Alice
Guy Delaroque
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 50 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$785
Collection Purity - Un Anonyme Nu Dans Le Salon - HB1353
Idan Wizen
Photography - 90 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$841
3 femmes et le lointain
Stephanie Larène
Painting - 30 x 42 x 1 cm Painting - 11.8 x 16.5 x 0.4 inch
$550
Bouquet
Claire Bonnet-Masimbert
Painting - 147 x 96 x 4.5 cm Painting - 57.9 x 37.8 x 1.8 inch
$2,805
Collection Purity - Un Anonyme Nu Dans Le Salon - HB1255
Idan Wizen
Photography - 30 x 20 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 7.9 x 0 inch
$841
In the Studio: Form and Fruit
Arman Hayrapetyan
Painting - 135 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 53.1 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$3,600
Antique melodrama
Nadezda Stupina
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,627
La légende de la Mandragore no 6
Marie-Josée Roy
Sculpture - 101.6 x 55.9 x 55.9 cm Sculpture - 40 x 22 x 22 inch
$2,700
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.