The Nude

The nude in its art historical and social contexts. Traditionally considered shorthand for abstract concepts such as truth or beauty, the nude is in fact a powerful index to ideas about gender, power, and sexuality in any of the historical periods which produced it. Drawing on recent scholarship, we will examine works produced in Ancient Greece, the Renaissance, and the Modern Period in social and historical context, and consider ways in which the human body has been both a stylistic vehicle for artistic expression and a social tool for constructing ideas of masculinity and femininity.