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Why is there
this fascination with the nude in art? Perhaps the key to it can be
found in the Old Testament story of Adam and Eve where we are told nudity
was an intrinsic part of the enjoyment of Paradise prior to the Fall.
We are told that Adam and Eve, having been made in the likeness of God,
enjoyed life in the Garden of Eden in the presence of God, and did so naked.
Part of the “gift” of Paradise was not to feel any shame in their nakedness.
In fact, it seems that Adam and Eve were ignorant of right and wrong; or
should I say "innocent" of right and wrong. Paradise was the
enjoyment of a life in which Adam and Eve communed with God face to face, as
it were, without any sense of shame and guilt, without any judgment of or
understanding of right and wrong.
However,
after the Fall, Adam and Eve become aware of their nudity and feel shame for
the first time, and in response cover their sex organs with fig leaves; they
have lost their innocence. The story also suggests that God was not
immediately aware of the Fall, but on the next occasion that he came to
commune with Adam and Eve he saw that they had covered themselves in shame,
and it was by these actions that God understood that they had disobeyed his
instruction not to eat of the fruit of knowledge. By eating the
"forbidden fruit", Adam and Eve entered the human condition of awareness of
right and wrong, and of having to make judgment and choice as to right and
wrong. The irony of this is that in becoming human, Adam and Eve now
became more "god-like" in that they now shared with God this knowledge.
But it was to be a burden that they and their children would bear, because
having this knowledge would mean they would henceforth have to choose
whether or not to "serve God". |
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The story of
Adam and Eve then tells us that nudity without shame was symbolic of the
state of innocence that Adam and Even enjoyed prior to the fall. As
such, it is by implication the state to which mankind will return upon
achieving redemption.
The
depiction of the nude in fine art, then, can be viewed as part of the
redemptive effort of mankind to regain his innocence and return to the
presence of God and to enjoy once again the state of innocence that Adam and
Eve enjoyed in the Garden of Eden. The nude can be viewed as one of Plato’s
“forms” or Jung’s archetypes; a metaphor for the common yearning of all men
to be redeemed of his shame and to enter closely into the presence and
friendship of God. Since we cannot look upon a nude without being
reminded of our sexuality and how our bodies compare to others, the nude is
both a reflection of the redeemed state that we yearn for, and a reflection
of what we are lacking in our current state.
What is
your response to viewing a nude? Can you not say that you are
compelled to compare yourself to the form and shape of the nude? I am
fatter, thinner, shapelier, more or less “well endowed”. Can you not say
that you have been reminded of your own sexuality when you view a nude, even
though the work of art is far from pornography? The nude reminds you
that in being human you are also animal, and imperfect, and separated from
God, someone who must live with the burden of the knowledge of good and
evil. It reminds you that you are on a continuum; that your naked body
is somewhere and somehow better or worse than that of the nude upon which
you gaze, and also somehow better or worse than the naked bodies of all
those with whom you share the planet. It reminds you that you judge
your body because others are constantly judging and comparing your body, and
that you in turn judge and compare the bodies of those with whom you share
you daily life.
Would it
not be paradise to be free of all these thoughts and judgments made by
ourselves of others, and of others about ourselves; to never have to compare
ourselves to others again? Would it not be paradise to be absolutely
unaware of our imperfections and differences compared to others?
Such is
the role of the nude in art. The nude can celebrate the body as the
most marvelous and beautiful creation of God, and in so doing remind us that
we are made in God's image. At the same time, the nude reminds us that
we bear the burden of the loss of innocence suffered by our "first parents"
and of our separation from God. The nude in art is a bold and
courageous attempt to regain our innocence and to enter once again the
company of God.
©
John Corney 2005
Fine Art Nudes by Daniele van Eck
Bum, a male nude
painting
Female Nude Oil painting by Annie Marquis
Female
Nude with Long Red Hair
Male Nude Holding Rainbow - Painting by Raymond Neher
Nude
Men Playing at Beach by Raymond Neher
Pict Family Life Limited Edition Giclee Print
Pict Warriors Preparing for Battle Giclee Print
Reclining Nude Painting by Raymond Neher
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 Venus de
Milo (Louvre
Museum) |
The nude in art has been a consistent theme and subject
throughout the history of fine art. Be it religious art or
portraiture, the naked human form has always fascinated mankind, and been
one of the enduring subjects of art. Many of the masterpieces of fine
art have featured the nude. Consider Michelangelo’s ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel which depicts God stretching out his finger to bring life to the
naked Adam. The statues of Venus and David both celebrate the
perfection of the human form as nudes. And almost all the gods of
Greek and Roman antiquity were represented in statues as nudes. 
