Nudity in Greek Art

Many people tend to associate nudity in Greek art with the heroic, handsome man representative of “arête”; ideal perfection of both body and spirit (Bonfante). The strapping athlete, the conquering warrior, the beautiful youth, and the powerful god are certainly all stock characters in the world of ancient Greek nudes, but their presence is only the surface layer of a complex realm. Nudity in Greek culture and art served as a costume that denoted a specific character role or trait to its subject depending on the context. These characteristics shifted and overlapped as customs, norms, and beliefs changed over time.

Historian Jeffrey Hurwit discerns several specific categories of the male nude in archaic and classical Greek art, including heroic, realistic, distinguishing, bestial, and pathetic nudity.

Heroic nudity represented the ideal human form elevated its subject’s status. Heroic male nudes were youthful, beautiful, and noble; often warriors and conquerors from Greece’s history and mythology, kings, or gods. In later works of art, they were sculpted, painted, or carved using mathematical equations to portray what the Greeks at that time regarded as perfect bodily proportions.

Realistic nudity is very similar to heroic nudity and the two were often overlapped and combined in works of Greek art. This type of nudity served to illustrate real-life activities and conventions in archaic and classical Greece. Because men exercised and competed athletically while nude, it was natural for Greek artists to portray athletes as such (McDonnell). Similarly, because nudity typically accompanies sexual acts, erotic art depicted the male nude. Realistic nudity was often idealized in the same manner of heroic nudity, most likely because athletes and paramours naturally fit the youthful, physically beautiful mold of the heroic nude.

Distinguishing nudity served to differentiate individuals in art from one another. The Greeks regarded male nudity as a defining cultural characteristic, seeing themselves as superior because they celebrated their bodies while other (implicitly inferior) cultures saw nudity as a “sign of degradation or shame” (Hurwit). Many works depicting Greeks and foreigners together often portray the Greeks nude, while the outsiders are covered. On the other end of the spectrum, nudity was also used in art as a tool to indicate that a figure was a slave; being property, they were not worthy of clothing. How distinguishing nudity was utilized depended heavily on the context of the art work.

 An example of heroic, athletic nudity, used to showcase an ideal of male beauty and power. 

“Distinguishing” and “heroic” nudity, used to differentiate between the noble, unclothed Greek and his barbaric, covered opponent. 

This distinguishing nudity serves to denote these hard-working individuals as low-class slaves. 

Bestial nudity was often used in depictions of centaurs, satyrs, and other half man/half animal beings. Animals are naturally naked, so these mythological creatures often were as well. Similarly, uncivilized, animal-like men were portrayed nude, often to comic effect. Male worshippers of Dionysus often sported absurdly large phalluses in order to symbolize their beastly, brutish natures.

A satyr with an erect phallus is an example of bestial nudity

Pathetic nudity, in direct opposition to the ideal of heroic nudity, was utilized by Greek artists to weakness or defeat. In several works, such as the Dexileos stele, a hero in flowing robes is shown conquering a naked, battered opponent; Hurwit hypothesizes that this originated as a way to make archaic and classical Greek art more palatable to outside cultures. In any case, this disparity illustrates the complex nature of the male nude in Greek art.

Here the noble Greek is defeating an opponent, who is shown naked to emphasize his vulnerability and weakness. 

Female nudity in Greek art has a less convoluted history, though it is nonetheless fascinating. During the early archaic period, the female nude was all but absent. The Greeks at this time saw female nudity as a flagrant display of sexuality and, unlike the early Mesopotamians who revered this fertile power, felt threatened by and sought to repress it. Because of this, any nude female figures were depicted as vulnerable, weak, and pathetic; often they only existed in art depicting rape. One popular motif was that of Kassandra, a Trojan princess of Greek mythos who was raped by Ajax in the temple of Athena. In early artwork, Kassandra is depicted as a disproportionately small, prepubescent girl, even though she is a sexually mature woman in the myth. Female nudes were often represented in this manner; in making them childlike, Greek artists were able to emphasize their weakness while simultaneously deemphasizing their sexuality (Cohen).

This early depiction of the Rape of Kassandra shows the princess (center) as a prepubescent girl in order to highlight her vulnerability and hide her sexuality. 

Later, female nudity took on a different meaning; the Knidian Aphrodite by sculptor Praxitele is one of the first notable examples of a powerful, beautiful female nude in Greek art. The goddess of love and sexuality had previously been portrayed as clothed; in showing her as fully nude, the role of female nudity in Greek art shifted to serve as a portrayal of powerful fertility, noble dignity, and idealized form. As with the heroic male nude, artists began utilizing mathematics to discern their female nudes’ ideal body proportions, making female nudity a representation of perfect beauty (Sorabella). This change was illustrated in later depictions of the Rape of Kassandra; instead of portraying a childish, humiliated princess, these works showed Kassandra as a “tragic, noble heroine” still in possession of her power, sexuality, and dignity (Cohen).

The Knidian Aphrodite helped establish the role of the female nude in art as a beautiful, dignified, life-giving character. 

Kassandra is sexually mature in this mid-archaic work and is adorned with a cloak in order to show that she is not pathetically naked and still possesses her dignity. 

As female nudity became more accepted as a fixture in Greek art, it began making appearances in erotic works. Prostitutes and slaves were often seen dancing or performing nude, and sexual acts, both homosexual and heterosexual, were depicted not only to titillate viewers, but to glorify and amplify the power of female sexuality and fertility.

This piece of pottery, depicting female lovers, was likely designed to titillate viewers and to exalt the power of female sexuality. 

Sources:

Bonfante, Larissa. “Nudity as a Costume in Classical Art”. American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 93, No. 4 (Oct., 1989), pp. 543-570

Cohen, Beth. “The Anatomy of Kassandra’s Rape: Nudity Comes of Age in Greek Art.” Notes in the History of Art, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Winter 1993), pp. 37-46

Hurwit, Jeffrey M. “The Problem with Dexileos: Heroic and Other Nudities in Greek Art”. American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 111, No. 1 (Jan., 2007), pp. 35-60

McDonnell, Myles. “The Introduction of Athletic Nudity: Thucydides, Plato, and the Vases”. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 111, (1991), pp. 182-193

Sorabella, Jean. "The Nude in Western Art and its Beginnings in Antiquity". Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, (January 2008)