by Jessica Casey

Created on: February 17, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

Throughout history, the human body has represented many different things to many different people. It has been the source of reverence or shame, beauty or filth. As such, portraits of human body has gone through many transformations, from culture to culture, from Renaissances to Reformations. What is considered sacred one day can be reviled as profane the next.

Despite of all these social upheavals that occurred (and continue to occur) the nude portrait has never ceased to exist. There are many explanations for this, but I think one of the most reasonable is quite simple. Relevance. For everything that surrounds the body- the luxury or the poverty- is secondary to the act of simply existing. It is a means of communication, for we all share this one thing in common, this human form. If nothing else in our lives are the same; religion, wealth, race, location, servitude or served, the one thing we all have in common is our bodies. They are the primary vehicle for experiencing this world, and connecting to others in it. They have the power to say everything when words fail.
Surely artists all have their reasons for creating their art; but it is not always necessary to know these reasons. Each viewer brings their own interpretations, there own desires and biases to the work which makes it always such a unique experience. What I see when i stand in front of a nude painting might not be at all what you may see or experience. We each bring our own history to the table, and it will colour our perceptions. How do we deal with the issue of nudity in our own lives will often dictate how we perceive a certain depiction of human nudity.
What i consider profane might not seem so to another. What I think of as beautiful might cause a deep sense of shame in another.
But whatever the experience may be, it is an experience that every human on earth can share, can relate to. The human body is always a source of relevance, of shared experience. And because of this, the nude portrait will be as relevant tomorrow as it was so many thousands of years ago when we were carving nude figures in the walls of caves.

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