The history of the FEMALE NUDE in paintings - Video

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Over the centuries and millennia, different societies and cultures have had different levels of tolerance for naked women in art. In fact, nakedness in art is a reflection of the social norms of a certain time and place. This is because the way things are shown is inextricably linked to the idea of what is right or wrong to show. In any case, nudity is often linked to the most scandalous sexuality, but it can also mean other things. In fact, it has so many different meanings that it is linked to mythology, religion, the study of anatomy, and the expression of perfect beauty and aesthetic perfection. Because there are so many ways to look at a naked woman, she has been and continues to be the subject of many different kinds of art in Western history. Even though some of the above depictions of the female body seem artistic and not at all scandalous, in most societies of the past, women were rarely shown in a way that wasn't linked to sexuality. This is probably because women had less rights than men. Because of this, it seems likely that the female naked only became officially and gradually accepted in art after women got more political rights. So, the history of how the female body has been shown seems to go hand in hand with the history of emancipation. The stages of emancipation were mostly shown in art from Greece, Italy, and France. Because of these different points of view, it will be clear that the role of the naked woman in art is unique, always balancing between art and obscenity. This means that any time an artist shows a naked woman, he or she walks the thin line between art and "pornographic" representation.

1. The fertility nude and the "realistic" nude in prehistory
In Paleolithic art, naked women were often linked to worship of fertility gods. This is clear from the earliest pictures of women's bodies, which are called "Paleolithic Venuses" because they look like overweight women with wide hips and breasts that stick out or hang down. Most of them are from the Aurignacian period and are made of limestone, ivory, or soapstone. Aside from the Venus of Willendorf, the Venus of Lespugue, the Venus of Savignano, the Venus of Laussel, and the Venus of Doln Vstonice are the most well-known. When it comes to painting, on the other hand, naked women have been shown as far back as rock art, especially in northern Spain (the Franco-Cantabrian area) and the Mediterranean basin, where they are shown in scenes of hunting, rituals, and dances that involve the whole community. In later times, women are remembered in a more realistic way, like the Tassili n'Ajjer.

2. In ancient Egypt, beauty was meant to go with people to the next life
It's important to remember a key part of ancient Egyptian figurative culture: women in their later or more mature years are rarely shown in their art. In fact, female characters were shown to be slim, beautiful, and at the peak of their youth. It was hoped that the effigy would be able to take on these qualities in the afterlife because they were captured in art. In general, Egyptian art was not realistic, because this culture cared a lot about how people saw it. In fact, there are almost no pictures of pregnant women or women's bodies after giving birth. This is because artists only want to remember people at their most beautiful and young. Scholars did notice a change in the way women were shown in art during the Third Intermediate Period. During that time, women's bodies became rounder and thicker, and their breasts got bigger and hung down. About the naked body, on the other hand, it was common for people to be naked at that time. In fact, some social roles and tasks, like fishing and manual labor, required people to be naked. When it came to work, servants, dancers, acrobats, and prostitutes went about completely or mostly naked. This is shown in a painting from the Tomb of Nebamun called "Naked Dancers" (c. 1350 BCE).

3. In ancient Greece, the body was like Aphrodite's
In ancient Greece, a beautiful woman should have had a soft body with round buttocks, long hair with waves, and a perfect face. Such rules made sense back when having more fat on your body meant you were rich and could afford to eat well, setting you apart from the poorer and hungrier classes. In this context, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, sex, beauty, and fertility, was shown to have a round face, large breasts, and a pear-shaped body. Praxiteles' Aphrodite cnidia is the best example of one of these canons. It is also a very important piece of art because it was the first to break the rules by showing a naked woman in Greek art. In fact, Greek society used to show mostly male genitalia and kept female nakedness to scenes of captivity, submission, or small scale...