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
Luna
Alexandra Kapogianni-Beth
Sculpture - 81 x 36 x 26 cm Sculpture - 31.9 x 14.2 x 10.2 inch
$7,870
Lonely
Alexandra Kapogianni-Beth
Sculpture - 54 x 53 x 29 cm Sculpture - 21.3 x 20.9 x 11.4 inch
$8,316
Narkissos
Alexandra Kapogianni-Beth
Sculpture - 90 x 38 x 28 cm Sculpture - 35.4 x 15 x 11 inch
$11,108
Ezoteroticus
Irakli (Akuna) Kavtaradze
Painting - 125 x 150 x 4 cm Painting - 49.2 x 59.1 x 1.6 inch
$4,856
Extraction n°2
Manon Deck-Sablon
Photography - 80 x 120 x 0.1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 47.2 x 0 inch
$3,237
Lost in thought
Agnieszka Staak-Janczarska
Painting - 115 x 90 x 3 cm Painting - 45.3 x 35.4 x 1.2 inch
$3,684
June '97 - To love too much, Painting, Oil on canvas
Adam Parsons
Painting - 61 x 61 x 3.8 cm Painting - 24 x 24 x 1.5 inch
$3,800
0205
Salvatore Arnone
Photography - 89.9 x 69.9 x 0.3 cm Photography - 35.4 x 27.5 x 0.1 inch
$2,200
Carnaval à Venise
Volodia Popov
Painting - 73 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 28.7 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$10,046
Un Break Masculin
Hildegarde Handsaeme
Fine Art Drawings - 76 x 55 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.9 x 21.7 x 0.4 inch
$424
La fille à la fenêtre
Franck Rozet
Photography - 100 x 50 x 0.6 cm Photography - 39.4 x 19.7 x 0.2 inch
$2,791
HeartBeat, Selfportrait
Chiara Mazzocchi
Photography - 50 x 70 x 0.3 cm Photography - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.1 inch
$553
The Flowers Garden
Michael Bastow
Fine Art Drawings - 100 x 70 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0.4 inch
$6,140
La piscine n°5
Camille Brasselet
Photography - 50 x 75 x 0.1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 29.5 x 0 inch
$1,507
Plaisirs Engloutis
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 56 x 76 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 29.9 x 0 inch
$1,060
To the white wall
Tsanko Tsankoff
Painting - 100 x 130 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 51.2 x 0.8 inch
$4,242
Offrande Impie #2
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 76 x 56 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.9 x 22 x 0 inch
$1,060
Douces Ténèbres #22
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 56 x 76 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 29.9 x 0 inch
$1,060
Noire Tendresse #2
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 40 x 50 x 3 cm Painting - 15.7 x 19.7 x 1.2 inch
$1,953
Méandres
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 50 x 40 x 3 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.7 x 1.2 inch
$1,953
On the way to Arcadia - II
Tsanko Tsankoff
Painting - 100 x 120 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 47.2 x 0.8 inch
$2,791
L'arbre intérieur
Marie-Josée Roy
Sculpture - 190.5 x 40.6 x 40.6 cm Sculpture - 75 x 16 x 16 inch
$7,400
The terrifying night of the first transformation
Ramonn Vieitez
Painting - 50 x 39.9 x 0.3 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0.1 inch
$2,500
Lumières sur la ville
Zwy Milshtein
Painting - 162 x 130 x 1 cm Painting - 63.8 x 51.2 x 0.4 inch
$14,512
Le feu sacré, Noto, août 2022
Veronica Mecchia
Photography - 18 x 24 cm Photography - 7.1 x 9.4 inch
$670
(Un)happy Family
Matteo Nannini
Painting - 100 x 150 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 59.1 x 1.2 inch
$6,140 $5,219
Acanthus, Noto, Août 2021
Veronica Mecchia
Photography - 24 x 18 cm Photography - 9.4 x 7.1 inch
$670
Convergence
Boluwatife Victoria Lawal
Painting - 121.9 x 152.4 x 2.5 cm Painting - 48 x 60 x 1 inch
$7,000
Vendedores de pájaros Diptych
Celso Castro
Photography - 68.6 x 101.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 27 x 40 x 0.1 inch
$3,000
Morning in my garden
Anamaria Cepoi
Painting - 160 x 110 x 3.6 cm Painting - 63 x 43.3 x 1.4 inch
$6,826
Doigts de pieds en offrandre
Violaine Boisivon
Sculpture - 30 x 19 x 19 cm Sculpture - 11.8 x 7.5 x 7.5 inch
$1,451
Sur le rocher
Jacques Coquillay
Sculpture - 43 x 54 x 18 cm Sculpture - 16.9 x 21.3 x 7.1 inch
$11,721
Feeling, Painting, Oil on canvas
Andrey Chebotaru
Painting - 140 x 140 x 2.5 cm Painting - 55.1 x 55.1 x 1 inch
$5,150
Towards the land of joy
Guido Argentini
Photography - 100 x 100 cm Photography - 39.4 x 39.4 inch
$10,046
L'essayage des bas I (d'après Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec)
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Print - 76 x 54 x 0.1 cm Print - 29.9 x 21.3 x 0 inch
$201
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.