Human body
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At the edge of the Jade Sea
John Kenny
Photography - 67 x 45 x 2 cm Photography - 26.4 x 17.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,255
Afar woman of Assaita
John Kenny
Photography - 67 x 45 x 2 cm Photography - 26.4 x 17.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,817
Harmonie végétal-minéral
Claudette Allosio
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 50 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.2 inch
$1,901
Dans les rochers
Claudette Allosio
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 50 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.2 inch
$1,901
Le Blanc et le Banc
Caroline de Piédoüe
Painting - 60 x 60 x 3 cm Painting - 23.6 x 23.6 x 1.2 inch
$1,342
Fond Marin (Réf.69)
Jérôme Mesnager
Painting - 100 x 81 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.9 x 1.2 inch
$3,130
Encensé 1
Catherine Carrée
Fine Art Drawings - 43 x 60 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.9 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$1,118
But you can't kill me
Olivier Massebeuf
Painting - 116 x 73 x 2.5 cm Painting - 45.7 x 28.7 x 1 inch
$1,342
Éclats de vie
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 76 x 56 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.9 x 22 x 0 inch
$1,062
Maria
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$839
Meet the Reaper
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$839
Vesna
Marie-Madeleine Vitrolles
Sculpture - 96 x 18 x 18 cm Sculpture - 37.8 x 7.1 x 7.1 inch
$1,565
Renewal 14 JS
Jérôme Sorolla "Le parrain des arts"
Painting - 89 x 116 x 2.5 cm Painting - 35 x 45.7 x 1 inch
$1,342
Manufactura 9
Oriol Texidor
Photography - 40 x 50 x 7 cm Photography - 15.7 x 19.7 x 2.8 inch
$1,409
Here I Am
Kayimahe Ishmael Zed
Painting - 99.8 x 74.9 x 2.5 cm Painting - 39.3 x 29.5 x 1 inch
$1,450
Après l'expo
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 50 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.2 inch
$839
The Pictorial Cabinet of Marvels
Adele Moreau
Sculpture - 25 x 18 cm Sculpture - 9.8 x 7.1 inch
$991
Desvelando Gaudí 015
Ivanna Alejandra Sanchez Moretti
Photography - 40 x 30 cm Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 inch
$447
Spotty face beauty
Faie Davis
Photography - 40 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$925
Karo people from Ethiopia
Faie Davis
Photography - 30 x 50 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$990
Portrait PS 126 Kiev - De guerre lasse - French school
Bazévian Delacapucinière
Painting - 70 x 50 x 3.8 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 1.5 inch
$1,789
Torse Épigastrique (Opus 377)
Miguel Berrocal
Sculpture - 15 x 7 x 5 cm Sculpture - 5.9 x 2.8 x 2 inch
$2,012
My kitten , Gardens of Resilience series
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 80 x 60 x 1.8 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.7 inch
$1,062
Like diamonds shining (Identity Testimonies Series)
Imanol Marrodán
Photography - 40 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$950
Let there be light !
Olivier Massebeuf
Painting - 100 x 80 x 2.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 1 inch
$1,006
Red Cube
Shota Imerlishvili
Fine Art Drawings - 90 x 60 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$2,236
Ilori 3 (Put To Bed)
Janet Adebayo
Painting - 91.4 x 91.4 x 2.5 cm Painting - 36 x 36 x 1 inch
$1,990
Le manteau rouge
Victorine Follana
Painting - 70 x 50 x 4 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 1.6 inch
$1,230
Il est mien #2
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 70 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.2 inch
$839
Ganesha. Royal case of elephantiasis
The opium smoking white elephant
Photography - 40 x 40 cm Photography - 15.7 x 15.7 inch
$894
Procession - série personnages en marche bronze
Mireille Bassier-Tilmont
Sculpture - 23 x 34 x 10 cm Sculpture - 9.1 x 13.4 x 3.9 inch
$671
Anamorphose - série corps humain
Anne-Marie Renno
Painting - 60 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$503
Silent Soul (01)
Richard Laillier
Fine Art Drawings - 18 x 10 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 7.1 x 3.9 x 0.4 inch
$671
Grand sumo rouge
François Rambaud
Sculpture - 85 x 70 x 50 cm Sculpture - 33.5 x 27.6 x 19.7 inch
$4,025
A Wise Woman Once Said - (Bronze No. 2 of 10)
Joyce Fournier
Sculpture - 22.9 x 24.1 x 15.2 cm Sculpture - 9 x 9.5 x 6 inch
$4,590 $3,213
Orfi
Stefano Mazzolini
Sculpture - 100 x 35 x 50 cm Sculpture - 39.4 x 13.8 x 19.7 inch
$1,677 $1,342
Lemosi
Stefano Mazzolini
Sculpture - 133 x 54 x 55 cm Sculpture - 52.4 x 21.3 x 21.7 inch
$1,677 $1,342
Domestic yellows III
Dzovig Arnelian
Painting - 26 x 12 x 0.5 cm Painting - 10.2 x 4.7 x 0.2 inch
$600
Human body
'I wanted to conquer the world. But I also desperately wanted to understand human nature, and to know what was inside our bodies. To do this, I have spent whole night dissecting bodies, against the direct orders of the Pope. Nothing disgusts me. What I am looking for, truly, in all of my work and particularly in my painting, what I have looked for all my life, is to understand the mystery that is human nature' – from the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci in the 16th century.
At the time of writing these notes, da Vinci had already made greater understanding of the human body the primary objective of his investigations. Dissection and study were key to his development of a holistic knowledge of anatomy, which da Vinci believed was vital to the perfect rendering of the nude figures which he painted and drew.
Little by little, the traditional image of the human figure was uprooted and in its place new ways of interpreting the body developed. Contemporary artists relentlessly questioned the traditional codes of figure drawing, liberally reworking the representation of the body to create a new image that was dislocated, geometric, deformed and disfigured.
The body as an artistic subject is at once desired, fantasised, dreamt, transformed, deformed. For painters, photographers and sculptors alike the body represents a rite of passage in their artistic development. Many people say that they most appreciate the talents of an artists by way of their control over the complexity of the figure. For example, it's clear even in Matisse's later, more abstract collages that he had perfectly mastered the human form.
Representation of the body is fundamental to Western art: first and foremost because it suggests a representation of the self, and therefore affirms the artist's own existence and coexistence with the environment that surrounds them. At the beginning of art history, the only bodies represented were the gods, supernatural beings, and spirits who had taken on human form. The body, nude or clothed, is at once one of the most widely depicted and most deeply polemical subjects in Western art (think of the scandals provoked by Courbet's 'Origins of the World', or Renoir's 'Picnic on the Grass').
The body has always been the primary subject of an array of themes, and its history is rich and ancient. Initially, depiction of the body was closely linked to religion, where the Word became flesh in Genesis, but later in more secular times the arousal of the artist when faced with the body made for an equally popular theme. Latterly the notion of the body as an object of beauty was subverted by Cubism until depictions of bodies no longer bore any resemblance to reality or made any pretence of respecting the rules of proportion.
Finally, in modern art the body has taken on an abstract shape within space, becoming one with the environment. In some instances, the body has become the artist's own support, as with Klein's models. The body as an abstract concept is tangible in many different manifestations in art, even in pieces as unassuming as some of Rothko's paintings. It remains the subject of inexhaustible inspiration and eternal debate.