The naked woman in art history - a look at female act painting over the centuries (part 1)

The representation of the human body has been a central topic in art history since time immemorial. In fact, a significant part of the paintings that have influenced the story are nuclear representations, more precisely portraits of exposed women. The naked woman has always been fascinating on artists and viewers.

To illustrate, we can take Botticelli's "The birth of Venus" , Modigliani's "Lying Act" or "The origin of the world" by Gustave Courbet. The genre of nude painting can serve over the centuries with a variety of image issues. Henri Matisse , Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Paul Cézanne, Édouard Manet , René Magritte , Peter Paul Rubens and Egon Schiele include the most famous artists who have intensively devoted themselves to the exposed femininity.

The female body is an extraordinary source of inspiration for artists, since it is also the embodiment of the forbidden, dreaming, desire and beauty. In the art world, nude paintings are often the reason for controversy and münden in scandals.

The history of female nudity in art is unique because various communities and cultures have adopted representations of the naked human body to a differentiated extent over centuries and thousands of years.

In fact, mirrors T The exposed body in art always resembles the social standards of different times and places. The act painting of different epochs, currents and regions always references the way things were shown that were inseparable from the respective idea of ​​morality and decency.

Although nudity is often associated with scandalous sexuality These extend to interpretations from mythology and religion as well as studying anatomy and the expression of ideal beauty and aesthetic perfection.

The female act - in the area of ​​tension between high art and vulgarity

Even if the works of the female body mentioned above clearly seem to be artistic and (from today's perspective) hardly scandalous, we, as attentive observers, have to find a tendency: In most cultures in art history, naked women were rarely freed from a representation that was primarily associated with sexuality.

This was probably due to the fact that they had less rights than men. That is exactly why it is very likely that the female act in art was officially recognized after women had achieved major political rights. This acceptance took place gradually over time. Therefore, it seems that the history of the representation of the female form was associated with the history of emancipation.

The stages of emancipation were marked in a figurative sense primarily by art from Greece, Italy and France. From these points of view, it becomes clear that the position of the naked woman in art is unique and tries to create a permanent balance between art and obscene.

When a contemporary artist makes the naked female body on the subject, he almost inevitably moves on the line between artistic and "pornographic" representation . This can be seen as an extreme as a spectrum with two poles. And female acts are the balancing act somewhere in between.

Primary and early history: the activity act and the "realistic" act

There was a strong connection between the worship of fertility gods and the practice of female nudity in Paleolithic art . The first representations of the female human body shape are known as "paleolithic venus figures" . They are characterized by the pronounced facial features of voluminous women with wide hips and breasts that protrude or hang down.

This is visible in the oldest pictures of the female human body shape. Limestone, ivory or bacon stone are the materials found in most of them, and they come from the Aurignac time . In addition to Venus von Willendorf the Venus of Lespugue , the Venus of Savignano , the Venus von Laussel and the Venus of Doln Vstonice one of the most famous examples.

As for painting, the naked woman, on the other hand, has already been shown in the French-Cantabric region of northern Spain and in the Mediterranean in rock paintings. In these works, female motifs are shown in the context of community scenes that represent hunting or rituals and dances. The Tassili N'ajjer is a good example of how women were characterized during this time by a simple, yet astonishingly realistic form of representation.

In the southeastern corner of Algeria, near the border with Libya, there is a mountain chain called Tassili N'ajjer . Since it is a national park, a biosphere reserve and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a significant part of this plateau is protected by all three organizations. It is the home of cypresses and historical monuments.

The Tassili N'ajjer is famous for his rock paintings, which are between 9,000 and 10,000 years old and mainly represent animal herds, huge wild animals such as elephants, giraffes and crocodiles as well as people in activities such as hunting and dancing. As far as female nudity is concerned, the Tassili was known for its rock art. If you look at it in this light, the image of five women with high hair and bare breasts, which for that period all have an incredibly "realistic" physique, is an interesting observation.

Old Egypt: Persistent beauty for life after death

A substantial aspect of ancient Egyptian figurative culture is that women are rarely shown in their older years. Female characters were petite, lovely and in their heyday, so they hoped that they would accept this image in the hereafter because art had immortalized it.

Egyptian art was not realistic because this society was concerned with its image. In order to immortalize people in their most beautiful and youthful form, there are only a few photos of pregnant women or female bodies after birth. However, scientists determined a change in women -oriented art in the third (1075 to 652 BC).

At that time, the round, thicker body with larger, hanging breasts appeared. Nudity was normal at that time, so some social classes and professions, such as fishing and Handmade , required the body to be undressed. A wall painting with bare dancers in a grave of Nebamun (approx. 1350 BC) shows servants, dancers, acrobats and prostitutes who work undressed.

The lost grave of Nebamun was an Egyptian tomb from the 18th dynasty, which was found in the Theban necropolis on the western bank of the Nile, today's Luxor. Famous decorated grave scenes from this grave are exhibited in the British Museum in London. The plastered walls of the grave are decorated with colorful murals that represent idealized scenes from life and the activities of that time. His most famous works include hunting scenes and half -naked banquets.

Greek antiquity - the human body as ideal

In ancient Greece, the concept of act gained reinforced relevance for the first time in art. At that time, sporting events glorified during religious festivals in an unsurpassed manner, especially the male body. The athletes who took part in these competitions started without clothing, and the Greeks saw them the embodiment of everything that is really admirable about humanity.

Therefore, it was only natural for the Greeks to equate the male act with triumph, size and even moral superiority. These are ideals that seem to be inherent in the beautiful files shown in Greek art.

While representations of naked athletes were presented as offerings in temples, the illustrations of gods and heroes of Greek mythology found a form that resembled their sporting appearance. The sensations spread in other ancient cultures, in which nudity was often associated with shame and defeat, are in the clear contrast to the worship of the body by the Greeks.

These embodied a completely different attitude. A well -known example of the perspective outside of the ancient Greece is the biblical report on Adam and Eva. In this narrative, the first person and the first woman admit her nudity and are humiliated and even punished.

In contrast to the man, the naked woman a different genealogical line. While the first -mentioned figure represents a embodiment of the divine essence of reproduction, the man has his origins, which is an idealized human athletes. Numerous representations of exposed women were used in the course of history to represent fertility gods, such as the Middle Eastern Ischtar .

Aphrodite also belonged to this group and was portrayed as a being that has both the ability to give life and to be haughty and seductive. In contrast to their contemporaries in the Middle East, the Greeks preferred a clothed representation of Aphrodite for many years.

But around 350 BC. Praxiteles created a naked version of this goddess, who became known as a Knidische Aphrodite . This marked the beginning of a new tradition for female nudity in art. Similar to the statues of Greek male athletes, the Knidische Aphrodite showed idealized proportions, which were derived from mathematical conditions.

Furthermore, her pose, in which she tended to the side and covered her body with one hand, conveyed the impression that the goddess experienced something unexpected while bathing. This gave her naked body a narrative and erotic dimension . It is possible that the attitude of your hands should express a feeling of modesty or symbolize the desire to protect the viewer from taking a look at your divinity.

Although the statue of Knidos has not been preserved, its influence is shown in the numerous reproductions and variations that were created by various artists during the Hellenistic and Roman era. These representations of Venus can be found not only in temples, but also in open -air sanctuary.

The red Kylix des Onesimos

The Attic Kylix, which to Onesimos (500–480 BC), is an example of these early approaches of the female act in painting . In this piece there is a lady who plays naked and lying down Kottabos. Kottabos was a popular activity during the festival of the male symposium. In fact, the young lady, who holds the handle of a deep cup (Skyphos) on her index finger, tries to throw food leftovers from the bottom of the vessel to a long -distance destination.

In this special context, however, it must be emphasized that the symposia were actually only reserved for male participants. As a result, naked women were therefore present to offer entertainment to the male participants. In fact, the nudity of the above -mentioned persons for the respected women of Athens would have been considered too daring; However, it may have been granted slaves that were hired as prostitutes, or "Etere" , wealthy women who enriched the evening of drinking male by singing, entertainment and the display of sexual beauty.

Roman antiquity - Eros greets Pompeii and Herculaneum

The Roman world caused a sensation in particular through the erotic works by Pompeii and Herculaneum when it comes to nude representations. A comprehensive series of archaeological research that started in the 18th century was discovered considerable erotic art from these two ancient cities.

This initiative revealed that the places mentioned were rich in erotic works of art that were presented both in the form of sculptures and in wall paintings. The characteristics of the topics indicate that the Roman customs were more revealing than in most of us known to us. However, it should be emphasized that many of the only erotic representations for us could actually be symbols of fertility of nature in the broadest sense as well as happiness and prosperity.

"Venus in a shell" , a fresco from Pompeii, which shows the Roman fertility and love goddess, was discovered between 1933 and 1935. The walls of the room were decorated in the IV. Pompejan style. Compared to the prevailing eroticism in the ancient Roman city, Venus's fresco appears relatively subtle in a shell. Incidentally, the house bears the name of this most famous fresco. To be more precise, the naked Venus is only in a shell and is accompanied by an amor and a child at birth, which most likely represents the young Mars.

Middle Ages - Eva and sin

With the rise of Christian culture in the Middle Ages, the body became the holy temple of the soul , which had to be protected from meat -like desires that God saw as terrible sins. Despite these ideas, the truck remained, so much that the devil and the lust in the sensuality of the female body derived from Eva were inextricably linked.

That is why medieval art shows the mother of mankind in its innocent and youthful nudity, already capable of taking the apple of sin.
In the Middle Ages, the church used the act to emphasize human fragility and to "teach the ignorant religion" . The church ordered frescoes, sculptures and paintings for churches and manuscripts that transported the church teaching and moral ideas exactly.

Art was mostly religious and nudity was evil. It revealed that people are mortal and imperfect. Nach paintings were shown for iconography. Naked characters can be seen on the church's interior decor, colorful glass windows (from the High Middle Ages) or the tympana of churches, which often refer to the fall or the underworld. Adam and Eva symbolize sin and nudity. They are mostly shown with snakes or plants that hide their genitals.

Adams and Evas , by Masolino (approx. 1424-1425)

A characteristic work of art of this period is located in the Brancacci chapel of the Santa Maria del Carmine church in Florence. This piece is called "Adam's temptation" or "original sin" and was created by Masolino between 1424 and 1425.

The painting is the well -known event from the Old Testament, especially the moment when the snake from the book of Genesis tries to persuade Adam and Eva to violate the rules. This episode, which is located in the late Gothic style, is characterized by the light, which gently and envelops the figures, as if they are radiating a diffuse shine.

Furthermore, the fact that the background is black contributes to the sensual appearance of the bare bodies of the two sinners.

Expulsion of the ancestors from Eden , by Masaccio (1424-1425)

Masaccios paintings, which represents the expulsion of the ancestors from Eden, is located in the same chapel as Masolino's work. At the moment of their disobedient towards the laws of God and their subsequent consumption of the fruit of knowledge, Adam and Eva are captured as a naked woman and naked man. In fact, they are represented as if they were exposed and powerless as they are removed from paradise. In fact, however, it is crucial to emphasize the fact that Adam and Eva have already entered paradise, according to the report in the Bible.

This means that we are in the transition between the High Middle Ages and Eturn Renaissance. In the second part, we examine the further dealings with naked femininity in the course of the Art Periods And Movements Renaissance, mannerism, baroque and classicism to modern times to classical modern and contemporary art.