Nudity in art.

A few rather incoherent quotes and thoughts about the book, read whoever you want.

What did I learn from Clark? Any type of nudity was once invented by someone and then directly or indirectly reproduced (from statues, sarcophagi, quotes from other artists, etc.). The Greeks invented the type of Venus (pudika, public, anadyomene...), maenad, naiad, dying warrior, Marsyas. Europeans are the “northern type”. The Greeks have a curve of the hip, lifting up, in Gothic - the curve of the belly, pulling to the ground.

In this book I have tried to show how the naked body has been given memorable shapes to communicate certain ideas and feelings to us. I think this is the main one, but not the only reason the existence of nudity. In all eras when the body was a subject of art, artists felt that it could be put into a form that was good in itself. Many have gone even further, believing that in nudity one can find the optimal general factor of significant form. 394 pp.

Nudity in art is art form, invented by the Greeks in the 5th century BC, just like opera is an art form invented in Italy in the 17th century. Nudity is not a subject of art, but a form of it. 11 pages

Along with poses that have apparently acquired the status of almost ideograms, in European art there are thousands of nudes that do not express any idea, nothing except the painter’s desire for perfection of form. 397 pp.

The idea of ​​offering the viewer the body as such as an important object of contemplation simply does not occur to the Chinese or Japanese... 17 p.

It makes us remember everything that we would like to do to ourselves, and we, above all, want to be immortalized. 16 pages

One of the few classical canons, the reliability of which cannot be doubted, is that in the figure of a naked woman the distance between the breasts is the same, from the chest to the navel and from the navel to the intercrural region. 29 pp.

“Art,” says Aristotle, “completes what nature is unable to complete. The artist gives us the opportunity to understand the unrealized goals of nature.”

...everything has an ideal form, and the phenomena of earthly reality are only its more or less corrupted copies. 21 pp.

There are two ways to achieve the ideal - the artist can select perfect parts of several figures and make a perfect whole from them. This is what Pliny says is what Zeuxis did when he “constructed” his Aphrodite from the five beautiful girls of Crotona. 21 pp. But such a design lacks organicity. Another way is the “middle form”.

What both Reynolds and Blake meant by ideal beauty was in reality a vague memory of a particular body type created in Greece between 480 and 440 BC and with to varying degrees intensity and understanding that have brought a model of perfection to the consciousness of Western man from the Renaissance to the present day. 23 pp.

At the beginning of the third book of Vitruvius, where a set of rules for the construction of religious buildings is given, he states that these buildings must have human proportions.

...the human body is a model of proportion, for with outstretched arms and legs it fits into perfect geometric figures: the square and the circle.

Leonardo da Vinci. Vitruvius's Man c. 1490

Vitruvian Man- a drawing drawn by Leonardo Da Vinci around 1490-92 as an illustration for a book dedicated to the works of Vitruvius, and placed in one of his journals. It depicts the figure of a naked man in two superimposed positions: with arms and legs spread to the sides, inscribed in a circle; with arms apart and legs brought together, inscribed in a square. The drawing and its explanations are sometimes called canonical proportions.

The drawing was made with pen, ink and watercolor using a metal pencil, the dimensions of the drawing are 34.3 x 24.5 centimeters. Currently in the collection of the Accademia Gallery in Venice.

The drawing is at the same time scientific work and a work of art, it also exemplifies Leonardo's interest in proportion.

According to Leonardo's accompanying notes, it was created to determine proportions (male) human body, as described in the treatises of the architect Vitruvius, who wrote the following about the human body:

• the length from the tip of the longest to the lowest base of the four fingers is equal to the palm
• the foot is four palms
• a cubit is six palms
• the height of a person is four cubits (and accordingly 24 palms)
• a step is equal to four cubits
• the span of human arms is equal to its height
• the distance from the hairline to the chin is 1/10 of its height
• the distance from the top of the head to the chin is 1/8 of its height
• the distance from the top of the head to the nipples is 1/4 of its height
• maximum shoulder width is 1/4 of its height
• the distance from the elbow to the tip of the hand is 1/4 of its height
• the distance from the elbow to the armpit is 1/8 of its height
• arm length is 2/5 of its height
• the distance from the chin to the nose is 1/3 of the length of his face
• the distance from the hairline to the eyebrows is 1/3 of the length of his face
• Ear length 1/3 face length
• the navel is the middle of the circle

The rediscovery of the mathematical proportions of the human body in the 15th century by da Vinci and other scientists was one of the great advances that preceded the Italian Renaissance.

The drawing itself is often used as an implicit symbol of the internal symmetry of the human body, and further, the Universe as a whole.

As you can see by examining the drawing, the combination of hand and foot positions actually produces two different positions. The pose with arms and legs spread apart is inscribed in a square. On the other hand, a pose with arms and legs spread out to the sides is inscribed in a circle. Upon more detailed examination, it turns out that the center of the circle is the navel of the figure, and the center of the square is the genitals. Subsequently, using the same method, Corbusier created his own scale of proportionation - Modulor, which influenced the aesthetics of 20th-century architecture.

Poliziano is the poet who inspired Botticelli's The Birth of Venus and Raphael's Galatea.

In the poem “Stanzas for the Tournament,” dedicated to his brother Lorenzo Medici- Giuliano and his beloved Simonetta Vespucci, for whose sake a luxurious tournament was organized in January 1476, the mythological basis of the work serves the author to create a Renaissance idyll, spiritualizing nature and deifying man. It artistically embodies the problem of the relationship between valor and Fortune, characteristic of humanism. The leading theme of the poem is love, which gives joy and happiness, but also deprives a person inner freedom. The beautiful young hunter Julis (Giuliano), in love with a nymph (Simonetta), grieves over his lost freedom; “Where is your freedom, where is your heart? Cupid and the woman took them from you.” A nymph among beautiful flowers - this image from Poliziano’s poem inspired a number of images in Botticelli’s paintings, including in his masterpiece “ Spring».

Symmetry, achieved through balancing and compensation, is the essence classical art. The figure may be in motion, but peace is always concentrated in its center. Balanced parts must have some measurable relationship with each other - a canon of proportions is required. Polykleitos composed such a canon. 50.s

Lysippos. Ancient writers tell us that he invented new proportions human figure: with a smaller head, longer legs and a more graceful body. 62 pp.

No other civilization has experienced such artistic bankruptcy as the one that, for four centuries, lived on the shores of Mediterranean Sea enjoyed fabulous prosperity. During these blood-stained centuries, the plastic arts fell into hibernation, becoming something of a bargaining chip. 63 pp.

How the enjoyment of the human body again became a permissible theme of art is a wonderful mystery Italian Renaissance. Kenneth Clark. 68 pp.

One should fix one's gaze on Venus, that is, on Humanitas. Her soul and mind are Love and Mercy, her eyes are Dignity and Generosity, her hands are Generosity and Splendor, feet - Cuteness and Modesty.

Marsilio Ficino. Letters to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici. Kenneth Clark. Nudity in art. 120 pp.

Undoubtedly, this is the strength of Venus, that her face very restrainedly expresses the work of thought. Kenneth Clark. 123.

...the first Renaissance artist to depict a naked woman as a symbol of reproductive life was Leonardo da Vinci. Between 1504 and 1506 he created at least three drawings of Leda and the Swan, one of which served as the basis for the painting. 142 pp.

I like it - reproductive life.

… female body, in all the fullness of its sensuality, is depicted in isolation, as something self-sufficient. This interpretation of nudity, outside the context of some event or environment, is extremely rare before the 19th century, and it would be interesting to know under what circumstances Titian invented this concept. 151.

Venus Anadyomene. OK. 1520.

Aphrodite Anadyomene(ancient Greek Ἀφροδίτη Ἀναδυομένη, “emerging, emerging from the sea”) - an epithet of the goddess Aphrodite, born from sea foam and emerging onto land, and the iconographic type of her image at this moment.

Why out of context? Just coming out of the sea has always served as an occasion to depict nudity; people don’t swim in the sea with clothes on, especially when they’re just born.

At the beginning of its development, mannerism began to spread in France. Rosso, Primaticcio, Nicolo del Abbate and Cellini found work in Fontainebleau that they could not find in their divided country, and, emerging from the restraining influence of the classical tradition, they began to create nude figures of fantastically thin and elongated forms. Cellini’s “Nymph of Fontainebleau” is incredibly far from the ancient canons; her legs alone are six heads long. ... Mannerism flourished when transplanted to other soil, partly due to the latent Gothic tendencies in French art, but also for the reason that even in the Middle Ages, France remained the focus of everything refined and spectacular, implied by the concept of “chic”. The ideal of mannerism is eternal femininity with fashion pictures. 168 pp.

...why did the personification of grace take such a strange form: too thin arms and legs, unsuitable for honest work, too thin bodies, not suitable for childbearing, and too small heads, clearly unable to accommodate a single thought. But we see the same exquisite sophistication in many other objects to which such materialistic explanations do not apply: in architecture, in ceramics, and even in handwriting. The human body is not the source, but the victim of these rhythms. Where does the feeling of chic originate, how is it controlled, by what internal criteria do we unmistakably recognize chic... One thing can be said with certainty: chic is alien to nature. ...true priests of chic are deeply disgusted by everything that is meant by the word “nature”. ….the exquisitely sophisticated ladies of Fontainebleau, despite their dissimilarity to earthly women, are created with the expectation of arousing carnal desire in the viewer; indeed, the very strangeness of their proportions invites erotic fantasies to a greater extent than the material bodies of Titian’s women.

This is the essence - speculation, fantasy, which is why Keira Knightley's size zero bust is among the ten most seductive

But, ultimately, it is this immateriality that turns northern mannerism into just a fascinating minor movement in the history of European art.

In the process of his research, he (Rubens) realized what severe formal transformations the human body must undergo in order to remain a work of art. 167 pp.

Ingres finally allowed himself to give free rein to his feelings, and everything that Tetia’s hand or odalisque foot, now (Turkish bath) has become openly embodied in lush hips, breasts and luxurious voluptuous poses.

Kenneth Clark Nudity in art. 186 pp.

So, according to Clark, the odalisque’s foot expresses sensuality! Here is that same foot:

In my opinion, it is somehow inexpressive, amorphous. Look at my collection, here are the expressive specimens, as if chiseled with a chisel.

Schaeffer, Cabanel, Bouguereau, Enner.

Nude figure presenting a view perfect art, is closely connected with the first moment of the plan, with the line... 195 pp.

...they would probably talk about their creations as artful depictions of exceptionally beautiful people. This is exactly what an artist should say. But in fact, they were all trying to create a certain image, born in the imagination from an alloy of memory, need and belief - memories of works of art of previous eras; the need to express one’s own feelings and beliefs that the female body is a symbol of the harmony of nature. 199 pp.

Decorative art is intended to please the eye, and not to occupy our mind, not to shake the imagination; it should be perceived unambiguously, like long-established rules of behavior. Therefore, it widely uses clichés and figures, which, regardless of their origin, are reduced to a symbolic equivalent that is understandable to everyone. From this point of view, nudity represents an inexhaustible source of decorative material. It is pleasing to the eye, it is symmetrical and has a simple, memorable shape, inseparable from the conditions of its existence. 326.

Zeus from Histiea. Attic statue. OK. 470 BC

The sculpture was found in the sea near Histiea (near Cape Artemisium). The first one separately standing figure, transmitted in motion and the only one that has come down to us in the form of a bronze original. 204 pp.

Not a single Renaissance artist ever gave a single date correctly, not even the date of his birth. 222 pp.

Nineteenth-century moralists argued that painting nudes usually ended in bed. This is probably what happens sometimes, but eroticism and sensuality are only a few of the many elements associated with nudity.

Nude, that is, the representation of the naked human body, is one of the most important genres of art. At the same time, only some images of nudes arose as a product of the artist’s desire to create a form that is a “thing in itself,” a work that brings aesthetic pleasure with the perfection of its lines; such work can be placed on a par with an exquisite architectural design or a gracefully shaped vessel.

For most works of art, the nude is only the starting point, creative means serving to express ideas and emotional states. Nowadays, it is believed that female nudity is something more attractive and natural than male nudity. However, in Ancient Greece, for the first time, images of a naked man appeared, whose body was considered more perfect. At the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, Cennino Cennini wrote in his Treatise on Painting: “I want to give you the exact parameters of a man. I won’t talk about the woman, because she doesn’t have perfect parameters.”

The predominance of female nudity became noticeable in the 17th century, and only in the 19th century did it become absolute. This was influenced by the sensibility of neoclassicism, which believed smooth and voluminous lines were more beautiful. Images of nudes appeared at the dawn of fine art, during the Early Paleolithic period, about 30 thousand years ago. These were small stone figurines or rock painting, depicting female figures with hypertrophied buttocks, breasts and pubic triangle; the head and limbs, on the contrary, were outlined schematically. During the Neolithic period, similar clay figurines appeared, and in bronze age- marble figurines, similar, for example, to items discovered on the islands of the Cyclades archipelago in the southern Aegean Sea.

IN Ancient Egypt, where nudity was interpreted as something completely natural, clear canons for depicting the human body developed. The impeccably beautiful half-naked figures of the rulers were filled with majestic dignity; Only in the images of persons of less noble origin could one find notes of realism - flabby muscles or folds of fat. An important milestone in this regard became the culture of ancient Greece. The first images of the naked human body were sculptures of kouros (young athletes) devoid of dynamics at the end of the archaic period (6th century BC), and about a century later, the classical ideal of beauty, which is well known to us, was already formed. The previous sketchiness of the images gave way to the results of a careful study of anatomy. The Greeks not only inherited nature, but also sought to improve it: they selected the most harmonious parts of different figures and put them together into an ideal whole.

The classical canon of depicting the human body was formulated by Polycletus in the second half of the 5th century BC, and its embodiment was the sculpture “Doriphoros”. The figure is positioned in contrapposto: its weight rests on the right leg, the left is slightly bent and set back, and the head is slightly turned to the right. The height of the head is one seventh, the length of the foot is one sixth, the length of the palm is one tenth of the height of the body. The pose used by Polykleitos for the depiction male figure, was used in the 4th century BC and to convey the forms of the female body. The line of the forward leg emphasized the natural structure of the figure and created an unusually sensual curve.

The classical ideal female beauty considered to be “Aphrodite of Cnidus” by Praxiteles (circa 360 BC). During the Hellenistic period, the Greeks moved away from the classical tradition of balance and began to exhibit grace or, conversely, emphasized the strong muscles of the figures. The ancient Romans reproduced the designs created by the Greeks; in addition, they introduced the practice of placing a sculptural image of the ruler’s head on an idealized body. The physical perfection of the statues was intended to emphasize the divinity of the emperors.

Reaction early Middle Ages the ancient cult of nudity was extremely negative, so images of nudity practically disappeared from art. The church considered naked sculptures of “pagans” to be the embodiment of idolatry and satanic temptation. However, the depiction of the naked human body was sometimes unavoidable: for example, it was impossible to do without it when representing Adam and Eve. The representation of the naked body was also allowed in paintings of the Passion of Christ, and in the 10th century the naked figure of Jesus was officially accepted as a fragment of the canonical image of the crucifixion. The physicality of Christ was meant to emphasize the human nature of the Son of God.

Those resurrected for the Last Judgment, as well as those doomed to hellish torment, were depicted naked. The image of the naked body could be seen in allegorical compositions, and here the source of inspiration for the authors often became antique works. An excellent example of this is Hercules, who symbolized the moral force that conquers evil. On the pulpit of the Cathedral in Pisa, Giovanni Pisano depicted Venus the Chaste as the personification of the virtue of moderation (1302 - 1310). More often, however, naked female bodies symbolized sins - depravity or vanity, and Venus, in particular, symbolized sinful bodily love.

In the 15th century, nudity ceased to be taboo, because in the late Middle Ages it was not something unusual - for example, public baths were very popular. As evidence of such changes in worldview, we can cite “Adam” and “Eve” by Jan van Eyck from the altar of the Cathedral in Ghent. The heyday of nude photography began in the 15th century in Italy in the wake of a return to ancient style. Italians, interpreting art As an intellectual activity, just like the ancient Greeks, visual observations were supplemented by scientific analysis. It was then that the study of painting became a mandatory element of teaching antique sculpture and drawing a nude model. Art theorists advised that when depicting a clothed person, first sketch the figure without clothes, and only then “dress” it. In the second half of the 15th century, artists even performed autopsies on corpses in order to thoroughly study the anatomy of the human body.

Masaccio's Expulsion from Paradise (1427) is considered the first surviving depiction of the nude from the Renaissance. In sculpture, this was Donatello’s “David” cast in bronze (1430). The image of the naked human body spread along with the growing popularity of mythological themes (for example, “The Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli). However, it was used in both biblical and sacred motifs - such as the baptism of Jesus or the torment of St. Sebastian. The depiction of nudity became a value in itself; images of naked bodies were introduced regardless of the theme of the work in order to awaken a sense of beauty in the viewer’s soul and demonstrate the artist’s skill.

Classical perfection of the depiction of nudes was achieved only by early XVI centuries, during the late Renaissance. Raphael came closest to the ancient ideal: his “Three Graces” (1504) are considered the quintessence of harmony. Michelangelo had a different vision of the nude - this sculptor was so fascinated male body that even female images he drew from models. His most famous work is “David” (1501 - 1504). In the Last Judgment (1534 - 1541), the crushing force of Jesus' body arouses fear of the wrath of God. North of the Alps, especially in Germany, influence ancient culture mixed with the late Gothic tradition. The nude Venuses of Lucas Cranach the Elder are elongated - “Gothic” - figures with a narrow chest and rounded bellies. The painting “Venus and Cupid” (1509) was the first nude depiction of the ancient goddess of love in Northern Europe, as well as the first in the work of this artist a painting on the theme of ancient mythology.

However, naked female images, despite all their eroticism, embodied fear of the body as a source of sin. Even the work of Albrecht Durer, the most a bright representative German Renaissance, was not free from these tendencies. Already in the 20s of the 16th century, signs of the collapse of humanism and associated changes in the aesthetic canon began to appear. A departure from classical proportions began; the new ideal of beauty was an unnaturally elongated, slender body full of artificial elegance. And in the second half of the 16th century, under the influence of the Counter-Reformation, the church again began to interpret nudity as something unacceptable in sacred art. In 1564, Jesus and the other figures in Michelangelo's Last Judgment were "dressed." At the beginning of the 17th century, mannerism again began to give way to naturalness: the realistic bodies of the martyrs Jusepe de Ribera or Caravaggio no longer had anything in common with ideal beauty.

Like them, Rembrandt van Rijn, striving for an in-depth transfer of the hero’s psychology, was not afraid to show ugliness and inferiority, which were more natural and characteristic of a living person than exquisite beauty - for example, in “Bathsheba” (1654) the artist depicted all the wrinkles without embarrassment and the folds of the model’s flabby body. More typical of the aesthetic preferences of this era, however, were the nude paintings of Peter Powel Rubens. His full-bodied female images resemble ripe fruits (for example, “The Three Graces” or “The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus”) - it’s like a kind of hymn to the glory of nature, the embodiment of love for life and all its pleasures.

Second half XVIII century was marked by a return to the ancient tradition in its harsh classical version. The art of this period was distinguished by " noble simplicity and calm majesty." Neoclassical nudes, despite the crystal purity of form, could not fully reflect real feelings, since they were poor in emotions, or, on the contrary, too pathetic.

For example, marble sculptures(“Cupid and Psyche”) seem to be nothing more than beautiful, but cold shells into which the artist’s soul was not invested. There was some revival in art in the first half XIX century romance. Eugene Delacroix returned to the dynamic forms of the Baroque - for example, in The Death of Sardanapalus (1827); Theodore Gericault in The Raft of the Medusa (1819), through the depiction of nudity, sought to more fully convey the tragedy of the shipwrecked. Neoclassicism shaped the academic interpretation of the nude, the official and predominant style of the second half of the 19th century.

Despite the general ostentatious virtue of this era, the abundance of naked bodies in works of fine art did not outrage anyone: this was justified by ancient tradition and mythological, historical or oriental motives. However, since in other spheres even the mention of the “forbidden” was impossible, the nude, interpreted as a symbol of art, essentially became a symptom of its emasculation.

The situation began to change thanks to the French impressionist artists. Paintings painted by Edouard Manet in 1863 - "Luncheon on the Grass" and "Olympia" - caused a scandal. The reason for it was not nudity as such, but the depiction of women in a manner devoid of prudishness. Following Manet, Edgar Degas and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec followed this path. Protesting against academic falsehood, artists painted women from Everyday life- workers, dancers, prostitutes.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a turning point occurred in the history of nudity, and the naked body was completely denied beauty and harmony. In 1905, Georges Rouault created several portraits of incredibly repulsive prostitutes. Deformed and transformed into likenesses geometric shapes the bodies of women in Pablo Picasso’s painting “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”, which evokes associations with African carved figurines.

The nude, like still life, became for artists (for example, Henri Matisse) only a pictorial construction, a tool for creating an independent form. Avant-garde artists attempted to represent the nude in abstract sculpture. Constantin Brancusi depicted the torso of a woman in the form of a shaft with shorter cylinders attached to it - legs. However, when in the 1930s, satiety with the avant-garde came and a return to classical forms, the nude became the main element that united modern Art with past centuries.

Today there is no single or predominant concept of nude art. Individual preferences artists and canons artistic directions range from abstract to hyperrealistic images - only man’s eternal interest in his own body remains unchanged.

TO classic style Nazi art readily embraced images of nudes. "The Avenger" (1940) by Arno Brecker reproduces the type of Greek victorious hero - a symbol of strength and struggle. “The Birth of Venus” (1863) by Cabanel is a typical “academic-dead” image of the nude, characteristic of painting in the second half of the 19th century. "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" by Pablo Picasso (1907) is one of the first works modern painting. As a topic (women from brothel), and the form became a protest against the traditional understanding of beauty.

In the following works, the artist went further - he not only deformed, but also mixed parts of the body. Edouard Manet in Olympia replaced academic idealization with realism, and the mythological theme with a modern one. This painting caused a scandal because Olympia was an ordinary prostitute - a character completely uncharacteristic of the painting of that time. The sculpture “The Dying Captive” (circa 1513) by Michelangelo was supposed to decorate the burial place of Pope Julius II. The concept of depicting the male nude as interpreted by Michelangelo inspired artists until the 19th century. An example of the exquisite eroticism of Mannerism is “Allegory of Time and Love” (circa 1545) by Angelo Bronzino. Here Cupid embraces Venus, who is his mother.

In “The Turkish Bath” (1862) by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, an oriental motif became the reason for depicting a whole group of naked women. The artist combined stunning perfection of form with calculatingly cold eroticism. Giorgione's Sleeping Venus, completed by another Venetian, Titian, became the first of many subsequent images of reclining nude models. The figure is distinguished by soft volumetric forms, which became even more pronounced in the Baroque era.

The “Resurrection of the Dead” scene provided Luca Signorelli with the opportunity to depict nudity in a classical manner - with careful study of the anatomical features of the body structure. In Donatello's "David" the motif Old Testament serves only as an excuse to present the beauty of a youthful body with soft, somewhat feminine lines.

The most realistic depiction of naked bodies in the Middle Ages was by Jan van Eyck. Eve represents the gothic type female figure: elongated body, narrow chest and rounded belly. The Venus of Willendorf and similar female figurines of the Early Paleolithic are considered a symbol of fertility. The height of the figurine is 11.5 cm. The group of Laocoon (circa 2nd century BC) represents the death of the Trojan priest and his sons in the fight against snakes - messengers of the gods.

Expressive nudity with expressive muscle patterns is a means of conveying suffering. This sculptural composition significantly influenced Michelangelo's style. The Crucifixion of Bishop Gereon (c. 975) from Cologne Cathedral represents the earliest image of the crucifixion in which suffering is so expressively emphasized. Since the 13th century, the body of Jesus has been depicted with increasingly visible signs of torture. The Greeks depicted the naked body because they considered it beautiful: the male torso even became a model for the manufacture of military armor.

In physical perfection the Greeks saw reflections of the nobility of the soul; Ancient Greek athletes trained and competed naked. A person was interpreted as an inseparable whole of soul and body, therefore nothing that concerned the body was considered reprehensible.

Russian art is already more than a thousand years old, but we are not rich in masterpieces of world significance depicting naked girls. For a very long time, artists were embarrassed and afraid to paint naked women. We tell you how this is connected with geography and the peculiarities of the historical development of Russia, national character, and in general - the attitude of our people towards any “shame”.

The church is to blame

The development of fine art and the processes occurring in it are decisively influenced by the dominant ideology. For centuries she was religious. Moreover, Rus' inherited the most visionary and symbol-focused version of Christianity - Orthodoxy. In the Catholic West, artists were allowed to paint “materialistic” things, such as a sleek, vile devil, the torture of martyrs with red-hot tongs, the naked breast of the Mother of God, and the fluffy wings of angels.

Unknown artist. Religious popular print "About the virgin Mary and her posthumous appearance to her father." 1904-1905. State Historical Museum

In Byzantium everything was about signs and canons, and in its art it was all about linearity and flatness. Nudity in the iconography adopted from there was allowed either exclusively to decent people - desert ascetics and holy fools (for example, Mary of Egypt and St. Basil the Blessed), who led such a lifestyle that their body could not serve as an example of physical beauty, or to the dead - the soul leaving mortal life flesh, or sinners in hell. Well, also to all sorts of demons and spirits. All these are not role models; such bodies do not evoke aesthetic pleasure.

Geography is to blame

To consider certain things “beautiful” requires habit and long-term training. For example, America believed that a black girl could be a real sex symbol thanks to the fact that Hollywood was engaged in visual propaganda for thirty years (if you count from the 1970s, when the first African-American women appeared among the Bond girls).

For the naked body in art to become beautiful and universally acceptable, centuries of eye training were required.

And also a very powerful indoctrination, during which everyone was taught that the body is a reflection of divine harmony, and therefore deserves admiration (Google “kalokagathia”). In Europe, this view was established somewhere in the 5th century BC. e. - in Ancient Greece. Cultures that are not related to antiquity have complexes when it comes to nudity - take the Muslim one, the traditional Japanese one.

Henryk Semiradsky. “Woman or vase?” 1887. Sotheby's

One day, an art professor asked students a question: “How to distinguish a genuine Greek statue from a Roman copy?” The students demonstrated their knowledge for a long time and persistently, proposing various theories, but the professor, after listening to them, said: “Everything is much simpler: Greek statues are completely naked, but in Roman ones the causal place is covered with a leaf.” Yes, Rome was already shy about nudity in art - but this was not typical for Hellas.

Ancient Greek civilization was anything but shy, at least when it came to the human body. She reveled in his beauty - at least if his body was really beautiful, like that of an athlete performing in sports. Olympic game, that’s why the athletes performed naked. And, of course, a perfect male body is worthy of embodiment in art... Ancient Greek art “naked” a woman not so willingly - after all, a woman, by definition, was considered an imperfect being, which means that glorifying the beauty of her body would be at least strange (however, statues of naked women are still they also occur - for example, Aphrodite of Cnidus).

Another piquant detail: that part of the body that modern men love to “measure themselves with” was never large in ancient Greek statues. Only Priapus, the god of fertility, who personified the wild, elemental power in man, was depicted with a huge penis, and the perfect body of a civilized person - a representative of the culture of the polis - did not tolerate any exaggeration. This also suggests that in the culture of Hellas, the depiction of nudity in art was least associated with unbridled sexuality.

For European Middle Ages such admiration was unthinkable, but it cannot be said that the naked body in medieval art was completely absent. It was allowed where it corresponded to historical circumstances - for example, when depicting the crucified Savior. Adam and Eve were “allowed” to be naked before the Fall. And in the Middle Ages sinners in Hell and people who appeared at the Last Judgment(probably thereby emphasizing that everyone there would be equal - after all, in medieval society, clothing made it possible to distinguish a noble lord from a commoner).

Another era that “fell in love” with the naked human body is undoubtedly the Renaissance, and it could not help but love it, since it was guided by the ideals of antiquity, one of which was the beautiful human body, presented in pristine nudity. Having declared man to be the center of the Universe, the philosophy of Renaissance humanism again admires him. A touch of frivolity appears later - in the Baroque era, an era of disappointment that hid bitterness under pomp (including the pomp of female forms).

Classicism and subsequent artistic eras they are trying to return to ancient images of beautiful nudity - but pristine admiration is no longer achievable. However, nudity is considered appropriate when depicting ancient subjects. It is noteworthy that - in contrast to Hellas - female nudity is considered more appropriate, but watercolor English artist E. Burne-Jones's "Phyllida and Demophon" was removed from the exhibition in 1870 precisely because of Demophon's nudity - Phyllida's nudity did not bother anyone.

In relation to the twentieth century, it is even difficult to talk about nudity in painting and sculpture - for bizarre images You can’t really see the naked body of the avant-garde. But the image of nudity in the young art of cinema flourished in full bloom. But this nudity was even more far from the innocent admiration of Hellas - the naked female body, along with a pistol, became one of the “ingredients” successful film, which does not claim to be high art.

Nudity in art. Kenneth Clark

Per. from English - St. Petersburg: ABC-classics, 2004. - 480 p. (Series "Artist and Connoisseur".)

The new series “Artist and Connoisseur” presents the book of the leading English art critic Kenneth Clarke “Nudity in Art”, which was translated into Russian for the first time. The author introduces the development of the nude genre from its origins to the present, identifying in it such specific directions as “nudity of energy”, “nudity of pathos”, “nudity of ecstasy”, etc. An original interpretation of the theme, lively, accessible language, an interesting selection of illustrations should attract the attention of not only specialists, but also a wide range of readers.

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The series "Artist and Connoisseur" presents a number of interesting art historical studies, having, first of all, educational purpose, but at the same time remaining strictly academic. Their advantage is accessibility and entertainment without conscious simplification and distortion of scientific thought. It is no coincidence that the books of the English art historian Kenneth Clarke are among the first to be included in this collection. His brilliant erudition, deep understanding of the subject, a faithful eye for criticism and a sincere love of art are complemented by respect for his audience. Moving from simple to complex, easily, without the slightest violence or desire to impose his opinion, the professor turns readers from amateurs into experts and true connoisseurs of beauty. There are few scientists who can talk about complex things simply, captivatingly and gracefully, but one wants to read Clark slowly, savoring individual phrases, carefully looking at the illustrations he offers. Scattered across the pages of his books are charming examples of academic humor, which seem to have migrated there from the professor’s lectures, which he delivered not only to students, but also to television viewers in Great Britain and America.

Perhaps the research topic will cause frivolous associations in some people, but strawberry lovers will only be pleased with the book beautiful pictures. According to Kenneth Clark, the image of the naked human body is one of the most important and worthy subjects in art, although not all historical eras he was given equal attention. It is impossible to deny the bodily nature of man, and since we are vain and certainly strive to be immortalized, fine art is unlikely to ever be completely limited to zigzags and colored spots, symbolizing the work of our subconscious. Of course, ideal external beauty constantly changing, he was influenced by frivolous fashion, religious morality, high philosophical reasoning and aesthetic delights. In Clark's book there is a place and Paleolithic Venus, And Greek goddesses; to the emaciated saints in gothic style and the earthly beauties of Rubens; the pretty simpletons of Renoir and the cubic nudes of Picasso. A lot has also been said about male beauty, fortunately right up to mid-19th century there has been no overt discrimination against men as nudes. Closer to our time, the right to demonstrate one’s charms, unfortunately, has become almost the complete prerogative of women.

In the spring of 1953, I gave six lectures on nudity in art at the annual E. W. Mellon Fine Arts Readings at the National Gallery in Washington. I have never spoken in front of a more responsive and intelligent audience in my life, and I would like to give each of those present a copy of this book as a token of my gratitude immediately upon completion of the course. But the lectures had to be significantly lengthened, three new chapters had to be written, and at the last moment the publishers convinced me to add another section of notes. This meant a nearly three-year delay, and I am grateful to the Mellon Memorial Readings Foundation and the Bollingen Foundation for their patience while waiting for the book to be completed..