Paintings of still-life objects, landscape and paintings of animals are impressive, express emotions and tell stories. Images of the human figure, in particular nudes, however, translate emotions most acutely.
Early Nude Art Works
The earliest known nude is the celebrated Venus of Willendorf, found in Austria. She is from the Stone Age (ca. 38000 – 10000 BC). Surprising to the archaeologists, sculptures of the nude female figure in the rest of the world were quite similar.
The earliest, most celebrated, nude art known today are from Greece and Rome in the period of Antiquity (900 BC – 300 AD). The realism of these works were quite impressive, and typifies the “Greek God” sculpture look.
There are not many early paintings available to us. These may not have survived the ravages of time. Hence there were only sculptures to tell the story.
The late Antiquity to Pre-Renaissance Paintings
The late Antiquity to Pre-Renaissance (300 – 1450) paintings were dominated by scriptural Christian paintings. This era was also classified as the Middle Ages and included Gothic art, Trecento and Romanesque paintings. Human figures were mostly stylized and symbolic rather than expressive. Nudes (if at all) were depicted as part of a narrative, rather than expression of emotion.
The Renaissance Paintings
The Renaissance period (1500s) was the rebirth of attention to the realistic human figure. It was this time that Artist’s signed their names onto their works and re-focused on the skill of executing artwork to impress, rather than indoctrinate.
Renaissance painters express the nude as beautiful, flowing curves and soft white skin so fleshy that one can feel their warmth. The genre is whimsical and airy like the paintings Sandro Boticelli.
Famous Renaissance artist Leonardo Da Vinci made a lot of study material on the human anatomy, which is fodder for many artists after him.
Michaelangelo Buonarroti (1475 – 1564) was the most illustrious artist of his time. He is regarded foremost as a sculptor. His nudes were beautiful, muscular, god-like. They were almost touchable and much more than realistic. His grandest paintings are frescos on the Sistine Chapel.
The figures of Raphael (1483 – 1520) were more soft-focused and smooth toned. Less musculature, but still strong body language.
Titian (ca. 1488 – 1576) painted nudes of different genres, from altar pieces to mythology. His paintings are dynamic, and there is a lot of motion of figures in his works.
The Baroque Era
The Baroque era (1600s) nudes are dynamically lighted like in a modern screen-play. The paintings are dramatic and 3-dimensional. Even though some of the story-telling in the paintings were based on Christian scriptures or Mythology, the characters in them were somewhat contemporary, real people. They were like actor in a movie set.
Baroque nudes, like those of artist, Rubens, were opulent, full of movement and drama and extravagant. Their bodies were full, but they seem light as air,
18th Century Paintings
18th Century nudes were the product of social and political climate of its time. The art (mostly) got less flamboyant and more stately, and majestic. A good number of nude paintings were borne out of this era. It was the dawn of satirical art. Many artists were also bound by the business of portraiture. Nudes, in this era remained dreamy, sensual like with the paintings of Jean-Auguste-Domique Igres, Jean-Honoré Fragonard and Francois Boucher.
Unlike the Baroque nudes, however, subjects had more ‘lighting’. The use of Chiaroscuro, a lighting technique was frequently used to enhance the figure with dramatic lights and darks.
