Nude nature in painting: history and modernity

Nude, or the image of naked nature, is one of the fundamental genres of painting. So it was in prehistoric times (remember the stone "Venus"). Throughout the history of mankind, artists have experienced the greatest interest in the naked body, which has not died down to this day. "Naked natures" in the painting of the 21st century absorbed the centuries-old experience of the image of the body.

Ancient world

The primitive artist saw in the depiction of the body (primarily the female) a symbol of fertility and endowed it with appropriate proportions. With the development of civilization, the canons of the image of man also changed: in ancient Egypt, the first canonical images of people appeared, which later gave way to the palm tree of Greek sculptures and frescoes.

In ancient Greece, the cult of the naked body reached its apogee - nakedness was not considered obscene and evocative, images of athletic bodies were performed in full accordance with the anatomy and discoveries of scientists (the golden section is an example).

The Epoch of Christianity: The Middle Ages

With the spread of Christianity, nude nature in painting sharply surrendered its positions - nakedness became the embodiment of sinfulness and demonic temptation. Nevertheless, illustrations of some biblical scenes could not do without images of the naked body.

By the end of the Middle Ages, nakedness had lost the status of a forbidden fruit, and with the onset of the Renaissance, a new flourishing of painting began, including in the genre of nude. Anthropocentrism, characteristic of the thinkers of the Renaissance, was embodied in the visual arts. Naked nature in the paintings of Raphael, Michelangelo, Da Vinci and other artists of that time became an indispensable attribute of their secular paintings and church paintings. There were really recognizable author's styles - heaps of massive bodies of the same Michelangelo are hard to not know.

New time

In the 16th century, there was a renewal of naturalness, aesthetic ideas changed and a new canon of beauty arose, including unnaturally elongated proportions of the body. Soon under the influence of the Counter-Reformation, nakedness was again condemned by the church. But by the beginning of the 16th century, Mannerism again gave way to naturalness. This period spawned great masters, such as Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Rubens, who showed the human body in its entirety, whatever that means. They depicted not only beauty, but also shortcomings. Naked nature in the painting of these artists is characterized by profound psychology.

The coming period of classicism (XVIII century) put an end to psychological research. This time marked a return to the ancient tradition with its strict ideal of beauty. But the longer this period lasted, the more the tradition degenerated, and by the middle of the 19th century classicism mutated into dry academicism, characteristic of the official painting of that time.

The protest was announced by the Impressionists - "Breakfast on the grass" and "Olympia" Manet, sparking a scandal, marked the beginning of a new era. Naked nature in painting finally got rid of the sanctimonious pseudo-morality and gained true freedom.

Modernity

At the beginning of the 20th century, the era of freedom began. Every artist has the right to interpret the human body in his own way, which gave an amazing result. "Avignon girls" Picasso and still-lifelike girls Matisse, prostitutes Georges Rouault - spitting into the face of traditional art, spawned the art of the new century.

Many went along the path of simplification, others went on to misleading. Nude nature in contemporary painting is the subject of free artistic interpretation, the result of which is the whole spectrum of this direction, from abstraction to hyperrealism.