Jesus Christ, the son of God and redeemer of humankind according to Christian belief, resides at the heart of its imagery his body was shown as mostly unclothed, revealing the signs of his physical persecution and crucifixion. Art played a key role in Catholic worship and instruction: on church walls and facades, on altars, and in liturgical and devotional books. In particular, the doctrines and rites of the Roman Catholic Church fostered common values and traditions throughout western and central Europe. Renaissance Europe comprised a diverse body of countries and territories divided by language, modes of government, and local customs, but with the great majority of its populations sharing a Christian faith. Image courtesy of the Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie The Temptation of Adam and Eve, about 1510, Lucas Cranach the Elder, oil on panel. Image © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY. On deposit from Musée du Louvre, Paris, to the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, 1957. Organized thematically, the exhibition juxtaposes works in different media and from different regions of Europe to demonstrate that depictions of the nude expressed a range of formal ideals while also embodying a wide range of body types, physical conditions, and meanings.ĭownload the exhibition object checklist The Fall of the Damned, 1468–69, Dieric Bouts, oil on panel.
The Renaissance Nude examines the developments that elevated the nude to a pivotal role in art making between 14. Their conflicted responses are mirrored in our own body-obsessed era, filled with imagery of nudity. For Christians, however-who represented most of European society at the time-the nude body could be disturbing, arousing personal desire.
The meaningful depiction of the human form became the highest aspiration for artists, and their efforts often resulted in figures of notable sensuality. In concert with new scientific approaches, artists across Europe studied nature-including the human body-with increasing specificity and deliberation. They employed diverse means: in Italy through a return to the models of ancient Greek and Roman art, and in northern Europe through refinements to the technique of painting in oils that enabled painters to capture textures-of flesh, of hair, of the sparkle in an eye-with unprecedented truth to nature. After 1400, with the waning of the Middle Ages, artists depicted nudes as increasingly three-dimensional, vibrant, and lifelike- in short, more immediate and real.
The nude-the unclothed or partially clothed human body-has been featured in European art for millennia.
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