Andreas Jaeggi:
"The Night"
Oil on Canvas
40" x 59"
2010

One of the bigger achievements in the visual field over the past decades of "Western Culture" is a balancing off in the number of representations of the male nude in relation to the female nude. The exclusive reign of the stark naked Majas, Olympias and Venuses is definitely over! Not that we are – generally speaking – any closer to accepting our natural shapes, curves and forms as they are, Heaven Forbid! The shape of our bodies is neither disgusting nor gorgeously sexy, but simply a "natural" given. But now, even the tabloids start to consider adding the photo of a nude man (albeit, I am certain, still carefully retouched and standing at an almost decent angle) to the mandatory 3rd page Tit Pic.

Classical scholarly studies of the unclothed body have always been part of any academic visual training (from Ingres to Hitler, and not forgetting the Ancient Greeks and Romans, of course). But for whatever obscure reason, these sometimes stunning studies have never been considered Art, even if they are masterpieces like Subleyras' standing man seen from behind.

(further paintings "Metz Blue Nudes")

References
Giorgione: "Sleeping Venus", 1509, Gemaeldegalerie, Dresden (Germany)
Tiziano Vecellio: "Venus of Urbino", 1538, Uffici, Florence (Italy)
Francisco Goya: "The Nude Maja", 1800, Prado, Madrid (Spain)
Edouard Manet: "Olympia", 1836, Orsay Museum, Paris (France)
Pierre Subleyras: "Charon Passing the Shadows", 1735, Louvre, Paris (France)