Reproduction of the naked body began with the advent of conscious life on our planet and does not end to this day. There is a large amount of research on this topic. So the influence of natural desire, religion or development of the city, as well as all that forms a society, led to the formation of norms and stereotypes about beauty and the body.
Two views of the Venus of Hohle Fels figurine (height 6 cm) beginning of the Upper Paleolithic. Schelklingen, Germany. Between 40,000 and 35,000 years ago [Online] Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_of_Hohle_Fels [Accessed 15/05/19]
The first, extant, nude image dates back about 35,000 years ago. Increased forms, most likely, testified to the deliberate stress of fertility. Since female forms were depicted with large breasts and waists, this may indicate breastfeeding or rounding of forms due to pregnancy. Thus, in the early stages of the development of a primitive society, the laws of nature and reproduction dominated. Although scientists claim that clothing came into use in humans about 75,000 years ago, in order to protect against cold and injury. So we can assume that the climate had a significant impact on the formation of thinking and trends in clothing. In a hot climate, by definition, less protection is needed than in a cold one.
In ancient cultures, the presence of clothing became a sign of wealth and status. With the development of human anatomy and other sciences, society began to form certain standards of human beauty, intelligence and significance. So, in ancient Egypt, naked girls could be dancers, but Pharaoh was depicted in clothes. In ancient Greece, athletes, as a rule, were naked in order to demonstrate the beauty and strength of their camp, but philosophers and thinkers will always be portrayed with covered bodies. In Rome, the formation of standards of beauty begins, therefore, undisguised will be deliberately depicted in a more regular form and in an elevated pose or gesture.
Fresco of bull-leaping from Knossos (an acrobat on a bull with two female acrobats on either side). [Online] Available from: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A2%D0%B0%D0%B2%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BF%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%8F#/media/File:Knossos_Bull-Leaping_Fresco.jpg [Accessed 15/05/19]
It is interesting to note that Richard Sennett emphasizes the importance of the city of its centre, movement and space (through a touch), pleasure and pain (through religion) in shaping the image of a person and his thinking. In his opinion, the system of the ancient city was aimed at space and openness, exposure. Once we can maintain heat in our body then, with proper management of this heat, a person does not need clothes. Such thinking was reflected in the construction of large areas and spacious buildings. This testified to the collective and universal.
Priority in society was given to men. The dominance of male grace is most likely caused by the established foundations of ancient society and the physiology of different sexes. During intercourse, Sennett writes, a woman is more often in a position of submission. I think that young and athletic people who are not burdened with a menstrual cycle or pregnancy, which greatly interfered with the weaker sex, became the centre of public attention, therefore, before the Renaissance period, the female figure was not so popular.
Adam and Eve in an illuminated manuscript (c. 950) The Escorial Beatus (Escorial, Biblioteca Monasterio, Cod. & II. 5) 10th century [Online] Available from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beatus_Escorial_-_18_Adam_and_Eve.jpg [Accessed 17/05/19]
In the Middle Ages, mankind was engaged in the fight against the plague and all sorts of other disasters. The most naked in this period were Adam and Eve. John Berger continues this story and comes to the conclusion that it is only during the Renaissance that the naked image tradition takes shape. “Man look at woman. Woman watch themselves being looked at”, (Berger, 1972) says Berger in his video, «Ways of Seeing». Reproduction of naked female flesh at the time of undressing becomes a new trend during the Renaissance. Calm grace is intended to seduce the viewer, according to Berger, nude grace has passed into the category of the object of admiration and desire, and this process continues to this day.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Naked Woman in a Landscape, 1883, 65 cm × 54 cm [Online] Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paintings_by_Pierre-Auguste_Renoir#/media/File:Renoir15.jpg [Accessed 17/05/19]
Of course, with the change of visual habits, the style and object of the image underwent changes. Kenneth Clark gives an example of such work. So the uprising of the artists of the 20th century was not against academism, but against the doctrine with which the impressionists agreed without hesitation, its meaning is that the artist should be nothing more than a sensitive and knowledgeable camera.
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, oil on canvas, 244 x 234 cm [Online] Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Demoiselles_d%27Avignon#/media/File:Les_Demoiselles_d%27Avignon.jpg [Accessed 17/05/19]
Jean Baudrillard emphasizes the change in the consumption system and the relationship to things and objects. Today's temptation, the author says, is a naked girl, but not bare meat. The body with the garter or in stockings is completely naked. That is, for the understanding of nakedness it is necessary that there is some element of clothing present, emphasizing the absence of clothes. The system of seduction, according to Baudrillard, has changed, mechanical fatigue from naked flesh has arisen. Our attitude toward naked is different, now we are looking for something other than just a naked nature.
Here I would like to note some trends in relation to gender and nudity.
We live perhaps in one of the most relaxed and peaceful times in the history of mankind. The development of technology has made it possible to find medicines for most diseases. So, infertility a few decades ago would have been incurable, but now even same-sex couples find a way out. That is, pregnancy and the ability to engender a new person is no longer the prerogative of a particular gender. Now the human path begins in a tube, although technical development so far can only occur in the female body. This allowed woman finally to get rid of the moral and physical complexes associated with childbirth, age of childbirth, weak gender, menstrual changes and other things.
Also, the development of biological technologies added synthetic materials to human skin. Enlarged or artificially created details become the context and plot of perception and interpretation. Plastic is the material of our time.
With such trends, naked nature does not only unexcited but becomes a common element. In order to attract the opposite, and sometimes the same gender, women tend to provoke, to behave more rudely, defiantly, which historically corresponds to the male type of behaviour. The woman becomes manlier, and the man, in turn, becomes more feminine. The ideals of beauty merge into one. This new transgender type does not need to be naked, there remains a mystery - this is already fully modified body and spirit or not yet.
Martín Gutierrez [Online] Available from: http://eosisnow.com/martin-gutierrez-artist/ [Accessed 17/05/19]
Social networks also form our stereotypes about nudes. Instantly attracting catchy photos comes at the cost of a glossy coating on the lips, chest and all other expensive items behind the back of the object of attention. Such photos with a sexual context, but without nudity, because the social network protection system can block the user, therefore, how we see sexual is the context. The latest trend of our time - “look at me, how beautiful I am and how cool my life is” has formed the canon of “posh body in posh life.” Now it’s not the body that is the object of admiration, but it is in the context of the environment around it, while both sexes admire, and not just the man, as it was in the Renaissance.
pusshman [Online] Available from: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxWGoleAWBX/ [Accessed 17/05/19]
Summing up, it can be noted that the reproduction of nudity has changed at all times depending on the development of society, city, technology, geopolitical events, religion and so on. 35,000 years ago, the first image of Venus transformed today into a transgender new. Synthetic body in the context of the surrounding luxury creates the most likely trends of competition, artificiality and superficiality. But, according to Baudrillard, our epoch allows us to enjoy clothed forms, not nudes, which are falling out of context. In my opinion, this opportunity opens up new ways of rethinking and depicting the naked body of a man and a woman.
Bibliography and references
1. Введение в современную философию: Жан Бодрийяр (Москва, Лектор Александр Смулянский, 29 мар. 2018 г.) [Online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0Q_WuimoYs [Accessed 15/05/19]
2. Sennett, R. (1994) Flesh and Stone: The Body and the City in Western Civilisation. WW Norton&Company New York, London [Online] e-book, Available from: https://www.scribd.com/doc/59767434/Sennett-1996-Flesh-and-Stone (Accessed on 21.05.19)
3. Kennet Clark, (1953) The Nude: a study in ideal form. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey [Online] e-book, Available from: https://www.scribd.com/document/328647802/KENNETH-CLARK-The-Nude-a-study-in-ideal-form-Copy (Accessed on 21.05.19)
4. Ways of Seeing, (1972) Directed by John Berger and Mike Dibb, United Kingdom: BBC Two [Online]
5. Wikipedia, History_of_nudity, [Online] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_nudity [Accessed 15/05/19]
6. Wikipedia, Nude_(art), [Online] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nude_(art)
7. Yoval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, 2015, HarperCollins e-books, [Online] e-book, Available from: https://www.scribd.com/read/253264900/Sapiens-A-Brief-History-of-Humankind (Accessed on 21.05.19)
8. Yoval Noah Harari, Homo Deus, Published by Harvill Secker in 2016, Great Britain
9. Mark Manson, 2016. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life. Harper [Online] e-book, Available from: https://www.scribd.com/read/322011391/The-Subtle-Art-of-Not-Giving-a-F-ck-A-Counterintuitive-Approach-to-Living-a-Good-Life (Accessed on 21.05.19)
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