Male nude

David by Michelangelo.

The male nude is an artistic expression that portrays male nudity. It was widely used in classical antiquity, especially in sculpture. It was about reflecting the cult of the body, so frequent, for example, in the Olympic Games, in which the participants were completely naked and barefoot, except in the area of the testicles that they protected with a wrap so as not to suffer damage or discomfort. The cult of the body was the continuation of the cult of the gods, who were also frequently represented naked.

After the medieval period, the cult of the human body returned with the Renaissance and we have a good example in the sculptures of Michelangelo. The paradigm that the statue reflects is extremely interesting, to fix the dominant ideology at the time with the non-circumcision of David.

In the painting the male body was represented on the occasion of the theme of the classical divinities. Apart from this, naked male bodies were not painted in general.

With the appearance of Photography in 1826, when it opted for realism, nudes began to appear, especially of young adolescents towards the end of the 19th century. Towards the seventies of the last century it was already something common in many photographers who tried to show bodies segregated by the excessive appearance of female nudes. The modernization of photography and the development of color photography carried out at home made this type of image proliferate, avoiding the possible embarrassment of taking the photos to a laboratory.

Male nude photography tends to present men in athletic poses, ballet steps, or just parts of the body, such as hands, feet, or backs illuminated with high-contrast lighting. Also famous are the photos of muscular men with babies in their arms to contrast the masculine strength and the nudity and innocence of the child. There is also a tendency among many artists to stylize the nude, staining certain areas with color or light to highlight only some aspect of the model.

Male nude in Greek sculpture

Greek male nude sculptures show standing men static. These works are called kouroi or kurós, which simply means <<young>>. More than one hundred sculptures have been preserved until today, measuring from 1.5 meters to 3.35 meters, as is the case of the Kurós of Cape Sounion, in the National Archaeological Museum, in Athens. On the other hand, there are sculptures of male nudes reproducing deities. To this end, the nudes represented the physical canon established by the Greeks, with defined muscles and small sexual attributes. This is another important factor, since the penis in male sculptures had to be small due to the ideal of masculinity at the time.

The fact of reproducing them totally nude makes it possible to see the relationship of equals with the heroes and athletes who were also presented nude. Among these are works such as "Hércules Farnesio" (4th century BC) by the sculptor Lysippos, in the Archaeological Museum of Naples. In this work, the god's musculature hides the most important part: the apples of Hesperides in his right hand. Another key work in this case is the Belvedere Torso, whose model is unknown, but it could be Hercules or Ajax, both Greek heroes. It is the quintessential male nude, since it shows the musculature of the male body without distractions, such as the extremities.

Masculinity in the male nude

The representation of the naked body of the man is associated with a masculinity imposed by the society of the moment. In the mythological scenes, both painting and sculpture, which include nudes, the men on display have idealized bodies, with a lot of robustness and definition of the musculature, these being symbols of strength and power. Examples of this are Saint John in the Desert by Antonio Carracci; The Apotheosis of Hercules (1636-1638) by Jean Baptiste Borkens; the David (1501-1504) of Michelangelo and even Laocoon and his sons of Polidoro de Rodas, Agesandro de Rodas and Atenodoro de Rodas.

Male Nude and the Church

The representation of nudes, both male and female, in art has evolved throughout history. By taking more into account the spirituality and soul of people; the characterization of nudity is placed in the background. It is because the Catholic Church believes in the human body as a carnal barrier, from which each person is released when they die. However, it is necessary to consider the representations during the entire process of Art History of relevant characters in Catholicism, such as Christ. It is allowed to shape his body for the simple reason of having been a victim of suffering. With this, by observing his pain, the Christian reaffirms his belief, seeing a sculptural body involved in a situation of suffering.

Another important figure in Catholicism is Saint Sebastian, a saint condemned to die by a hail of arrows because of his Christian faith. However, he was rescued by a Roman lady named Irene, so his importance lies in having dodged death. The representation of this Catholic executed for fulfilling his faith, from the fourteenth century with the artistic period of the Cuatrocento and the proliferation of artistic works such as Botticelli or Masaccio, begins to be taken as a key point in the history of the male nude in balance with Catholicism..

Authors such as Alejandro Ferrant in his work The Burial of San Sebastián (1877) represent the body of the martyr with perfect musculature in different possible situations: with the body twisted as in San Sebastián (1525) by Giovanni Antonio Bazzi and even under the rain of arrows to which he was destined as in Saint Sebastian (1617-1619) by Guido Reni. His nudes have aroused attention in artists of all times, due to the definition of the human body and the religious image that come together in the character of San Sebastián.