The Italian Renaissance Nude

This book gives a great history of nude art during the Italian Renaissance. It is broken down into 5 chapters. Chap. 1 Nakedness in Renaissance Italy, Chap. 2 Nudity, Art and the Viewer, Chap. 3 The Perfect Body: Masculinity, Creativity, Divinity, and the Nude, Chap. 4 Making Naked Women Beautiful, Chap. 5 Mythological Nudes and Other Masculine Diversions. The author argues the purpose of nude art during the Italian Renaissance. Was it a tool of the elite? Most of the art was commissioned by the rich. It is interesting how many artists of the time found men more beautiful and proportional to model for them than women. Something most artists of today would think is the opposite.