"Il nudo maschile"

Speranza

Edward Lucie-Smith:

"The male nude, viewed strictly in art-historical perspective, subjects the contemporary painter or sculptor to formidable competition."

"It is impossible for any educated person to look at representations of the naked male in art without at the same time conjuring up in his mind a whole series of potentially crushing comparisons."

"These range from the Michelangelo "ignudi" on the Sistine Ceiling to the heroic nudes painted by Jacques-Luis David and by Gericault."

"But these comparisons are legitimate and useful only in a limited sense, because in order to make them we have to ignore some of the great fissures which run across the whole history of wester culture."