Censoring the Body cover art

Censoring the Body

Studies in World Art, Book 18

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 Months Free

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 15 July 2026 at 11:59 BST.
More purchase options

Censoring the Body

By: Edward Lucie-Smith
Narrated by: Teague Dean
Get this deal

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £5.98

Buy Now for £5.98

From the earliest times, human beings have found it difficult to represent their own bodies in a straightforward way. The rare painted images of humans in Paleolithic art are much less naturalistic than the images of animals created at the same epoch. At the dawn of art, representations of the nude body were simply vehicles for statement about the need for fertility if the human race was to survive successfully.

Both Paleolithic and Neolithic sculptures tend to present human males and females in terms of exaggerated sexual characteristics. The Venus of Willendorf is one of the best-known Paleolithic examples. The recently discovered Hongshan Neolithic-to-Chalcolithic culture that flourished in Northeastern China and adjacent regions of Mongolia from c.3500 BC to c.2000 BC produced numerous jade statues and amulets that emphasize the sexual aspect. In some of these, the female body is reduced to a pair of breasts and a vulva.

©2014, 2017 Cv Publications (P)2017 Cv Publications
Art Gender Studies Social Sciences World
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet