Tag: nude

• February 28, 2013

  How to see people naked in Renaissance Italy

  How to see naked men Seeing naked or near-naked men in the Renaissance does not seem to have been very difficult. I should point out that looking at naked people is not, necessarily, erotic. Indeed, the word for naked, nudo, in Italian had pejorative connotations, as suggested by the definition of “nudo” in John Florio’s…
• December 9, 2012

  Did renaissance women remove their body hair?

  Notoriously, on the wedding night of the celebrated art critic, John Ruskin and Effie Gray in 1848, Ruskin was so repelled by the sight of his bride’s body that he was unable to consummate the marriage. Effie Gray explained in a letter of five years later “he had imagined women were quite different to what…
• June 18, 2012

  “Is she pregnant, or just out of shape?” Misogyny and description in art history

  Rosso, Female Nude, Uffizi
• February 8, 2011

  African slavery and Italian nudes

  I’ve been reading a lot about renaissance ideas about Africa today, last minute additions to a talk I’m giving at Glasgow Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies on Thursday. This is all for the book I’m writing on ideas about nakedness in renaissance Italy, and the development of the nude as an artistic genre. The…