Heroic statue of a Roman general with the head of Augustus (1st century BC), Louvre, ParisAchilles in battle gear, Athenian (c. AD 240)Dying Gaul statue (1st century BC), Capitoline Museums, RomeJacques-Louis David: Léonidas aux Thermopyles (1814)
Heroic nudity or ideal nudity is a concept in classical scholarship to describe the un-realist use of nudity in classical sculpture to show figures who may be heroes, deities, or semi-divine beings. This convention began in Archaic and Classical Greece and continued in Hellenistic and Roman sculpture. The existence or place of the convention is the subject of scholarly argument.
In ancient Greek art, warriors on reliefs and painted vases were often shown as nude in combat, which was not in fact the Greek custom, and in other contexts. Idealized young men (but not women) were carved in kouros figures, and cult images in the temples of some male deities were nude. Later, portrait statues of the rich, including Roman imperial families, were given idealized nude bodies; by now this included women. The bodies were always young and athletic; old bodies are never seen. Pliny the Elder noted the introduction of the Greek style to Rome.
Agnolo Bronzino's painting Portrait of Andrea Doria as Neptune (c. 1530) and Michelangelo’s statue David (1501–1504) were Renaissance examples. The convention is occasionally also described in the modern era, such as Antonio Canova's statue of Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker (1802–1806) or George Bellows' anti-lynching lithograph The Law Is Too Slow (1923).
Heroicnudity or ideal nudity is a concept in classical scholarship to describe the un-realist use of nudity in classical sculpture to show figures who...
documented on several occasions in history. The artistic convention of heroicnudity was established in the art of ancient Greece by the Archaic period....
off with a tie. In the case of Kleobis and Biton, the depiction of heroicnudity can be seen in the "essentially unrealistic, in so far as warriors are...
The history of nudity involves social attitudes to nakedness of the human body in different cultures in history. The use of clothing to cover the body...
female form in Greek history, displaying an alternative idea to male heroicnudity. Praxiteles' Aphrodite was shown nude, reaching for a bath towel while...
well-known examples from this era. For the ancient Greeks, male nudity was considered heroic and sensually pleasing. This attitude is reflected in their artworks...
human body in the muscle cuirass may be inspired by the concept of heroicnudity, and the development of the muscle cuirass has been linked to the idealized...
Bowdlerization. Ancient Greek art was dominated by the tradition of heroicnudity and a more general normalization of male nakedness, including the genitals...
often equip a fig leaf to cover his genitals to further emulate popularly available samples of Greco-Roman sculpture and its traditions of heroicnudity...
lend him the dignity of heroicnudity or pathetic nudity. It was not infrequent for Greek warriors to be likewise depicted as heroic nudes, as exemplified...
this time, there was an emphasis put on the ideal man who was shown in heroicnudity. The body would be that of a young athlete that included chiseled muscles...
Donatello's David, satisfying the demands of a cultivated environment. His heroicnudity was revolutionary at the time, counterbalancing the androgynous nature...
Pausanias describes temples built there by Hadrian, and his statue – in heroicnudity – erected by its citizens in thanks to their "restorer". Antinous and...
Hadrian in Rome. Large bronze statue of Septimius Severus depicted in heroicnudity, Cyprus Museum. Septimius Severus on his deathbed next to his son Caracalla...
1805. Unlike most busts of Hadrian and other emperors, it shows him in heroicnudity. The bust was found in Rome and is carved from Greek marble. The Townley...
heroes so kouroi wore the costume of nudity to symbolize the heroic sentiment, a concept referred to as Heroicnudity. The Sounion Kouros was an offering...
the question of the nudity of the kouros and if this is also an attribute. Again this may have represented athletic or heroicnudity – immortalising the...
characterized by verism, but as early as the 2nd century BC, Greek heroicnudity was adopted for conquering generals. Imperial portrait sculptures may...
convention in classical sculpture of showing important political figures in heroicnudity, it depicts the Genoan admiral, Andrea Doria, posing as the classical...
14.92.1 Hurwit, Jeffrey M. (2007). "The Problem with Dexileos: Heroic and Other Nudities in Greek Art". American Journal of Archaeology. 111 (1): 35–60...
or intentionally, ... appears in a state of nudity commits Public Indecency." Later in the statute, nudity is further described as an uncovered female...
moral virtues and forming an artistic typology of long descent, that of heroicnudity. Just as the horrid face of the Gorgon installed on the facade of many...
Roman Senate, an impossible subject for a heroic sculpture; as Winckelmann pointed out, its heroicnudity would have been incongruous. It has been divested...
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