 |
Nudity was acceptable to the 19th-century French Salon-going
public,
only as long as the setting was clearly "classical",
depicting
characters in a culture where nudity was commonplace,
as in this
painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1847). |
Depictions of nudity refers to nudity in all the artistic disciplines including vernacular and historical depictions. Nudity in art has generally reflected — with some exceptions — social standards of aesthetics and modesty/morality of their time in painting, sculpture and more recently in photography.
At all times in human history, the human body has been one of the
principal subjects for artists. It has been represented on prehistoric
paintings and statutes and in all eras since. The male nude was more
common in antiquity, especially in ancient Greece, but today the
tendency is for the female nude body to be more highly regarded and
represented.
Since the first days of photography, the nude was a source of
inspiration for those that adopted the new medium. Most of the early
images have been closely guarded or surreptitiously circulated, on
account of social norms of the time. At that time, prostitutes tended to
model for these photographs. Today, the images of the human body are
often, especially in advertising for the wide variety of products and
services, those of the female body.
Many cultures accept nudity in art even when they shun actual nudity.
For example, even an art gallery which exhibits nude paintings will
typically not accept nudity of a visitor.
