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
Impossible is Nothing
Ivy Marie Apa
Painting - 27 x 47 x 1 cm Painting - 10.6 x 18.5 x 0.4 inch
Sold
Simultaneous Transparencies
Vincenzo Ceccato
Painting - 170 x 155 x 0.4 cm Painting - 66.9 x 61 x 0.2 inch
Sold
Série grands singes - 20/5
François Cognet
Painting - 89 x 116 x 2 cm Painting - 35 x 45.7 x 0.8 inch
Sold
The Return From The Trip
Andrea Vandoni
Painting - 70 x 90 x 4 cm Painting - 27.6 x 35.4 x 1.6 inch
Sold
What do you think - Italian painting
Antonio Sgarbossa
Painting - 30 x 30 x 1 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0.4 inch
Sold
Dessin 4 -Photographie de presse 01- série d'après collage numérique
Léa Dedieu
Fine Art Drawings - 29.7 x 21 x 0.18 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.7 x 8.3 x 0.1 inch
Sold
Dessin 3 - Image personnelle 02 - Série d'après collage numérique
Léa Dedieu
Fine Art Drawings - 29.7 x 21 x 0.18 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.7 x 8.3 x 0.1 inch
Sold
Le Déjeuner dans l'Herbe
Jean-Marc Teillon
Painting - 162 x 114 x 4 cm Painting - 63.8 x 44.9 x 1.6 inch
Sold
Etude assise
Léa Dedieu
Fine Art Drawings - 21 x 14 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.3 x 5.5 x 0 inch
Sold
Paysage
Lei Saito
Fine Art Drawings - 15 x 26.5 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 5.9 x 10.4 x 0.4 inch
Sold
Luminosité verte
Jonathan Pradillon
Painting - 27 x 41 x 1.7 cm Painting - 10.6 x 16.1 x 0.7 inch
Sold
Venetian portrait
Zdravka Vasileva
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
Sold
Une silhouette emballée (Madame Choui)
Jean-Robert Drouillard
Sculpture - 155 x 36 x 36 cm Sculpture - 61 x 14.2 x 14.2 inch
Sold
Une silhouette emballée (Rosalie)
Jean-Robert Drouillard
Sculpture - 155 x 36 x 36 cm Sculpture - 61 x 14.2 x 14.2 inch
Sold
Golden Kate Moss
Thierry Le Gouès
Photography - 100 x 100 x 5 cm Photography - 39.4 x 39.4 x 2 inch
Sold
Monica Bellucci
Hans Feurer
Photography - 56.5 x 48.9 x 0.3 cm Photography - 22.25 x 19.25 x 0.1 inch
Sold
Jealousy - Italian painting
Domenico Ronca
Painting - 40 x 30 x 2 cm Painting - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0.8 inch
Sold
Cold Ceramic composition
Stavri Kalinov
Painting - 40 x 30 x 2 cm Painting - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0.8 inch
Sold
Famille avec parasol
Maria José Ortega
Painting - 65 x 81 x 3 cm Painting - 25.6 x 31.9 x 1.2 inch
Sold
Les papillons de nuit
Valérie Auriel
Painting - 27 x 22 x 2 cm Painting - 10.6 x 8.7 x 0.8 inch
Sold
Féminité n°3
Jocelyne Deschamps-Kus
Painting - 30 x 30 x 1 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0.4 inch
Sold
Sahila (celle qui guide - Inde)
Tiven
Painting - 116 x 89 x 3 cm Painting - 45.7 x 35 x 1.2 inch
Sold
Le bruit des ailes
Evelyne Postic
Fine Art Drawings - 100 x 70 cm Fine Art Drawings - 39.4 x 27.6 inch
Sold
Composition with lights
Stavri Kalinov
Painting - 97 x 75 x 4 cm Painting - 38.2 x 29.5 x 1.6 inch
Sold
Vampire Lust
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 56 x 76 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 29.9 x 0 inch
Sold
Constance 1
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 30 x 20 x 3 cm Painting - 11.8 x 7.9 x 1.2 inch
Sold
Rolling Stones (Keith Richard)
Ivan Messac
Print - 50 x 50 x 1 cm Print - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
Sold
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.