The Purpose Behind Nude Oil Paintings

Historically, western nude oil paintings depicted the naked male body long before the naked female body. It is interesting to look at why this might have been so.

Some of the earlier paintings of naked bodies aimed to display the physical strength and prowess of males. This was especially true in Greek and Roman art which captured and emphasized the strong muscular features of the male form.

During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Greek and Roman artists continued to give attention to naked males rather than females. In fact, there seemed to be an unspoken taboo against trying to depict the naked female form. There appeared to be a sense of shame and sinfulness associated with naked females which did not seem to apply to naked males.

Some art historians suggest that, in the west, this had to do with religious beliefs originating in the Biblical story of Adam and Eve. In this story, Eve was considered a temptress who had persuaded Adam into the sin of eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.

In modern art, nudity has been more liberally depicted with artists using it in a variety of settings and styles. The naked human form has been painted in impressionist compositions, as fantasy art, abstract art and in cartoons.

Artists choose to paint the naked body for a variety of reasons. Firstly, there is the beauty of the natural, unclothed body that is considered worth capturing. There are also the various shapes and forms of the body that artists depict in order to make statements to challenge the religious, cultural and social beliefs of their times.

For instance, different body shapes were favored at various periods in the history of most western cultures as can be see in their oil paintings. Prior to the twentieth century, for example, more voluptuous female body shapes were considered desirable. However, more recent cultural tastes promote the much leaner and longer female shape.

Nude paintings give artists and their audiences the opportunity to study and enjoy the human form. Sometimes, this can be deliberately used to create erotic experiences. Interestingly, society tends to be rather more tolerant of nudity in art than it is of actual nudity. But even in art, there are greater and lesser degrees of tolerance. This is demonstrated by the way in which nudity is portrayed. Full frontal naked bodies are often considered to be more provocative than bodies that are partially hidden or even bodies that are depicted from the back.

Reproductions of famous nude paintings in oil are now available through a number of reputable art houses. Some of these reproductions include Blue Nude by Picasso, Nude in the Water by Dali and The Abduction of Psyche by William Bouguereau.

Source : ezinearticles