Three Labors of Hercules, about 1530, Michelangelo Buonarroti, red chalk. Image: Royal Collection Trust / Contemporary Artists who have made a name for themselves with their work on contemporary nude sculptures include the likes of Antony Gormley, Marc Quinn, and Jeff Koons. The Dresden Venus of Giorgione (c. 1510), also drawing on classical models, showed a reclining female nude in a landscape, beginning a long line of famous paintings including the Venus of Urbino ( Titian, 1538), and the Rokeby Venus ( Diego Velázquez, c. 1650). Although they reflect the proportions of ancient statuary, such figures as Titian's Venus and the Lute Player and Venus of Urbino highlight the sexuality of the female body rather than its ideal geometry. These works inspired countless reclining female nudes for centuries afterwards. [24] In addition to adult male and female figures, the classical depiction of Eros became the model for the naked Christ child. [31] Queer Artist Louis Fratino Discusses the New Age of Gay Culture". L'Officiel USA. March 11, 2021 . Retrieved April 7, 2021.

Zeus was the God of sky and thunder in Greek mythology, ruling as King of the Gods of Mount Olympus. The Graces presided over feasts and gatherings to please the gods’ visitors. Many artists have been inspired by and have used the Three Graces as topics. Canova’s skill in molding the stone to accentuate the Graces’ delicate skin is demonstrated in this masterwork, which is carved from white marble. The three goddesses are close together, their heads practically touching and leaning slightly inward, relishing their proximity. Canova’s artistic ability and creativity were legendary, and this piece exemplifies his pioneering style in Neoclassical sculpture. The reinvigoration of classical culture in the Renaissance restored the nude to art. Donatello made two statues of the Biblical hero David, a symbol for the Republic of Florence: his first (in marble, 1408–1409) shows a clothed figure, but his second, probably of the 1440s, is the first freestanding statue of a nude since antiquity, [32] several decades before Michelangelo's massive David (1501–1504). Nudes in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling reestablished a tradition of male nudes in depictions of Biblical stories; the subject of the martyrdom of the near-naked Saint Sebastian had already become highly popular. The monumental female nude returned to Western art in 1486 with The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli for the Medici family, who also owned the classical Venus de' Medici, whose pose Botticelli adapted. Nelson, Charmaine (1995). "Coloured Nude: Fetishization, Disguise, Dichotomy". RACAR: Revue d'art canadienne / Canadian Art Review. 22 (1–2): 97–107. doi: 10.7202/1072517ar.Oil paint historically has been the ideal medium for depicting the nude. By blending and layering paint, the surface can become more like skin. "Its slow drying time and various degrees of viscosity enable the artist to achieve rich and subtle blends of color and texture, which can suggest transformations from one human substance to another." [87] Falcon, Felix Lance (2006). Gay Art: a Historic Collection [and history], ed. and with an introd. & captions by Thomas Waugh. Vancouver, B.C.: Arsenal Pulp Press. N.B.: The art works are b&w sketches and drawings of males, nude or nearly so, with much commentary. ISBN 1-55152-205-5

Sargent, Antwaun (September 17, 2018). "These Gay Figure Artists Are Reimagining the Male Gaze". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved April 7, 2021. Other New York artists of this period retained the figure as their primary subject. Alice Neel painted nudes, including her own self-portrait, in the same straightforward style as clothed sitters, [47]Social commentary [ edit ] The Barricade (1918), oil on canvas, by George Bellows. A painting inspired by an incident in August 1914 in which German soldiers used Belgian townspeople as human shields. Alan F. Dixson; Barnaby J. Dixson (2011). "Venus Figurines of the European Paleolithic: Symbols of Fertility or Attractiveness?". Journal of Anthropology. 2011: 1–11. doi: 10.1155/2011/569120.

I also found a small piece of plastic in the kettle when I first opened it that had dropped off from near the spout. I take it that it had not been removed during the manufacturing process and I definitely would not have liked for this to end up in my hot beverage!The crescent shape could stand as an indication of divinity or semi-divinity. People of the ancient Near East believed the crescent moon symbolized a connection to the spiritual world. Therefore it is presumed that these statuettes may have been associated with mystical powers. These female nude statuettes seem to have served a funerary purpose. Did they also serve another purpose for the living? Were they used in sacred rituals or ceremonial practices? Pan Copulating with a Goat (c. 1st Century BCE) by Unknown; Kim Traynor, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons The nude, as a form of visual art that focuses on the unclothed human figure, is an enduring tradition in Western art. [2] It was a preoccupation of Ancient Greek art, and after a semi-dormant period in the Middle Ages returned to a central position with the Renaissance. Unclothed figures often also play a part in other types of art, such as history painting, including allegorical and religious art, portraiture, or the decorative arts. From prehistory to the earliest civilizations, nude female figures were generally understood to be symbols of fertility or well-being. [3]

Graves, Ellen (2003). "The Nude in Art – a Brief History". University of Dundee . Retrieved July 15, 2020. Suzanne Valadon painted non-sexualised, not overly-erotic nude depictions of women. [83] The art work does not depict women from the traditional male gaze standpoint, and Valadon was one of the only women artists to paint such subject matter, in such a way, in the first half of the 20th century. [83] Postle, M.; Vaughn, W. (1999). The Artist's Model: from Etty to Spencer. London: Merrell Holberton. ISBN 1-85894-084-2.Men and women did not receive equal opportunities in artistic training from at least from the Renaissance until the middle of the nineteenth century. Women artists were not allowed access to nude models and could not participate in this part of the arts education. [62] [63] There are many ways to express your religious beliefs through the use of nude artworks or sculptures depicting naked bodies.