Human body
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Antique games. Antique drama.
Nadezda Stupina
Painting - 100 x 120 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 47.2 x 0.8 inch
$7,348
Des culs et des cailloux n°1
Manon Deck-Sablon
Photography - 20 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 7.9 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$168
Isidora with umbrella - small
Stavri Kalinov
Sculpture - 14.5 x 6 x 1 cm Sculpture - 5.7 x 2.4 x 0.4 inch
$617
Isidora with coat - small
Stavri Kalinov
Sculpture - 14.5 x 9 x 1 cm Sculpture - 5.7 x 3.5 x 0.4 inch
$617
Ignudo sul geremia nº2
Davide Ricchetti
Painting - 50 x 50 x 3 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 1.2 inch
$2,973
Ignuda sul gioele nº2
Davide Ricchetti
Painting - 100 x 80 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 1.2 inch
$3,646
Musical Reflection
Bella Bibiluri
Painting - 80 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 31.5 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$2,300
Supplique du séant n°3
Manon Deck-Sablon
Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$505
Catharsis n°2
Manon Deck-Sablon
Photography - 30 x 20 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 7.9 x 0 inch
$168
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
Such a butt nu au temps frais
Stephanie Larène
Painting - 42 x 42 x 1 cm Painting - 16.5 x 16.5 x 0.4 inch
$505
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
$7,629
Stretched back
Emmanuelle Vroelant
Painting - 65 x 49 x 3 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.3 x 1.2 inch
$1,122
Love nature, motherfuckers!
Mikhail Baranovskiy
Painting - 100 x 70 x 2.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 27.6 x 1 inch
$2,244
Portrait of an Unknown Woman
Mikhail Baranovskiy
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2.5 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 1 inch
$1,571
Sexy Snow Fragment #1
Maxime Andriot
Painting - 90 x 58 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 22.8 x 0.8 inch
$1,234
Flora and Fauna
Vasyl Khodakivskyi
Painting - 95 x 95 x 2 cm Painting - 37.4 x 37.4 x 0.8 inch
$5,609
La couleur de l'âme
Natacha Birds
Painting - 116 x 81 x 4 cm Painting - 45.7 x 31.9 x 1.6 inch
$2,244
No16 SPIRIT Series
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 91.4 x 91.4 x 0.3 cm Photography - 36 x 36 x 0.1 inch
$1,666
Beatrix and Zsuzsa Dancing
Milburn-Foster
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$7,629
No43 SPIRIT Series
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 91 x 91 x 0.1 cm Photography - 35.8 x 35.8 x 0 inch
$1,655
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
The midnight espresso
Mikhail Baranovskiy
Painting - 100 x 70 x 1.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0.6 inch
$2,244
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
$168
The Boomer Collection - HB3032
Idan Wizen
Photography - 30 x 20 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 7.9 x 0 inch
$168
Série Backstage - F0597 – The alien
Idan Wizen
Photography - 30 x 20 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 7.9 x 0 inch
$168
Collection Purity - Un Anonyme Nu Dans Le Salon - HB1809
Idan Wizen
Photography - 30 x 20 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 7.9 x 0 inch
$168
Collection Purity - Un Anonyme Nu Dans Le Salon - HB1552
Idan Wizen
Photography - 20 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 7.9 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$168
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
$14,865
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
$1,683
I'm not afraid anymore
Dasha Pogodina
Painting - 80 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$1,773
Les bonnes manières
Herve Malcom Thomas
Painting - 89 x 146 x 2.5 cm Painting - 35 x 57.5 x 1 inch
$1,515
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
$224
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
$3,366
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
$2,749
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.