Human body
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A woman for every size - Ancient pleasures
Andrea Vandoni
Painting - 30 x 150 x 4 cm Painting - 11.8 x 59.1 x 1.6 inch
$2,344
Essence 2
Kathleen Ney
Fine Art Drawings - 45.7 x 30.5 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 18 x 12 x 0.1 inch
$470
Last Rays of Summer
Kathleen Ney
Fine Art Drawings - 45.7 x 30.5 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 18 x 12 x 0.1 inch
$482
A memory of an unfullfilled love
Alex Manchev
Print - 70 x 50 x 0.1 cm Print - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$324
JoŸau 42 Original n° EA II/IV
Sébastien Langloÿs
Sculpture - 7 x 5 x 4 cm Sculpture - 2.8 x 2 x 1.6 inch
$435
Fragmentation - Planète Terre
Claude Laffaye
Painting - 20 x 20 x 2 cm Painting - 7.9 x 7.9 x 0.8 inch
$167
Défense de stationner
Joann Côté
Painting - 111.8 x 152.4 x 5.1 cm Painting - 44 x 60 x 2 inch
$4,000
Dark and luminous self portrait
Joann Côté
Painting - 132.1 x 111.8 x 5.1 cm Painting - 52 x 44 x 2 inch
$3,750
Excentricité ordinaire Hervé tatoué
Arnaud Baumann
Photography - 80 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0 inch
$3,684
Blue Mood 2
Yannick Fournié
Photography - 140 x 107 x 1.5 cm Photography - 55.1 x 42.1 x 0.6 inch
$4,019
Femme chat aux bas résille
Arnaud Baumann
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0 inch
$3,237
La Esencia de la Vida 08
Ivanna Alejandra Sanchez Moretti
Photography - 40 x 53 cm Photography - 15.7 x 20.9 inch
$670
Lucia at fourteen in her grandma´s bedroom
Cristina Fontsare
Photography - 33 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 13 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$670
Lying on the Beach
Joanna Glazer
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 30 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$547
Colosse with very Fine Face Whispering a Secret
Joanna Glazer
Fine Art Drawings - 84 x 60 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 33.1 x 23.6 x 0.4 inch
$547
The Midnight Dress
Sue Rosalind Vesely
Painting - 120 x 90 x 3 cm Painting - 47.2 x 35.4 x 1.2 inch
$2,851
Those who feel
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 40 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0.1 inch
$491
Skirmisher
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 30 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0.1 inch
$491
Skins 005
Ivanna Alejandra Sanchez Moretti
Photography - 53 x 40 cm Photography - 20.9 x 15.7 inch
$670
Odalisque (The Yellow Blanket)
Michael Bastow
Fine Art Drawings - 100 x 70 cm Fine Art Drawings - 39.4 x 27.6 inch
$6,140
Olympia (d'après Manet)
Michael Bastow
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 100 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 39.4 inch
$6,140
A Bagno Maria
Claire Denarie-Soffietti
Painting - 120 x 90 x 5 cm Painting - 47.2 x 35.4 x 2 inch
$10,605
Don't be a big dick (red)
Ivan Gette
Painting - 160 x 120 x 4 cm Painting - 63 x 47.2 x 1.6 inch
$13,725
Don't be a big dick (blue)
Ivan Gette
Painting - 160 x 120 x 4 cm Painting - 63 x 47.2 x 1.6 inch
$13,725
Praticare autoerotismo per risolversi i problemi
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 30.5 x 36.6 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 12 x 14.4 x 0.1 inch
$279
Interpretation: Rubens
Edin Mustafic
Photography - 75 x 50 x 2 cm Photography - 29.5 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,172
Atlantias série corps d'homme
Chantal Molinié Jonquet
Sculpture - 64 x 48 x 19 cm Sculpture - 25.2 x 18.9 x 7.5 inch
$6,363
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.