![]() ![]() In a widely circulated engraving, Pollaiuolo used nude figures in vigorous poses to suggest the range of human action ( 17.50.99). 1440 Bargello, Florence) and thus presented a biblical hero in classical guise. ![]() Donatello adapted the idealized proportions of Greek athletic figures for his celebrated statue of David (ca. Nude figures based on antique models appear in Italy as early as the mid-thirteenth century, and by the mid-fifteenth century, nudes had become symbols of antiquity and its reincarnation. The rediscovery of Greco-Roman culture in the Renaissance restored the nude to the heart of creative endeavor. The weakness and defenselessness of the naked man and woman are stressed in medieval art, and this tradition extends into the fifteenth century in such works as Giovanni di Paolo’s Expulsion from Paradise ( 1975.1.31). Peter’s Grottoes, Vatican City), the ideal forms of Greco-Roman nudes are transformed into the first exponents of sin. In late antique works like the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus (ca. ![]() Among the notable exceptions are Adam and Eve, whose story casts undress in an ominous light. In this climate, there was little motive to study the nude, and unclothed figures are thus rare in medieval art. The early Christian emphasis on chastity and celibacy further discounted depictions of nakedness. Unlike paganism, Christianity required no images of naked divinities, and new attitudes cast doubt and opprobrium on nude athletics, public bathing, and the very value of the human body. The development and eventual dominance of Christianity in late antiquity profoundly changed the needs of patrons and the output of artists. ![]()
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