Il nudo maschile

Speranza

Photographic nudes fascinated the 19th century public just as they fascinate the public today because of their implied voyeurism.

The 'Griceian' logic which supports this remak is extremely simple.

The image which the camera produces is also a guarante that the photographer was physically present, and saw what is recorded with his own eyes, while there is always a possibility that the drawn or painted nude has been CONJURED UP from either recollection or imagination.

This led to other and subtle developments.

The photographic negative both seemed to offer a guarantee of the truth to fact of the image depicted -- a naked man -- but also offered a means of multiplying that image swiftly and cheaply.

Photography thus quite rapidly took over the directly erotic function of arousal which had hitherto been reserved for 'fine' art.

Even against the artist's will (cfr. R. C. Scruton, "Sexual Desire"), painting was sanitised and even to to speak intellectualised by the birth of the photographic pin up.