1

This is the original English-language draft of my article on nudity that appeared (in
slightly abbreviated form) in the Realllexikon für Antike und Christentum. It may be
cited along these lines: P. Stewart, 'Nudity (iconography)'. Unpublished English draft of
'Nacktheit II (Ikonographie)', in RAC vol. 22 (Hiersemann, 2013), 630-51.

Nudity (Iconography)

A. General observations.

B. Non-Christian.

I. The pre-classical Mediterranean.

II. Archaic Greece.

III. Classical Greece.

a. The ideology of N. and kalokagathia.

b. Narrative N.

IV. Late Classical and Hellenistic world.

a. The Aphrodite tradition

b. Hellenistic period

c. Art beyond Greece

V. The Roman world

a. Attitudes to N. in art.

b. Naked portraiture.

c. Ideal sculpture and mythological imagery.

C. Late antiquity.

I. Jewish art.

II. Earliest Christian art.

III. Later Christian Perspectives.

a. Continuity and resistence.

 2

b. Adam and Eve.

c. The body of Christ.

IV. Byzantium and Islam.

A. General observations.

N. and bodily display are among the most distinctive and consistent characteristics of
the Graeco-Roman artistic tradition and its modern heritage. In Greek and Roman
iconography, varieties of N. were almost ubiquitous. In certain respects this reflects
real-life practices such as athletic exercise in the gymnasion (the 'place of nakedness'),
the removal of clothes during Christian baptism, or more mundanely, the stripping off
of clothes by labourers working in a hot Mediterranean climate. However, within the
Graeco-Roman tradition, N. became an autonomous artistic convention -- a 'costume'
suitable for certain kinds of figures (Bonfante) -- at an early stage. The convention was
repeatedly adopted and adapted from the sixth century BC until the early Byzantine
period. It was slow to dwindle in the Christian era. The fondness for selective displays
of N. in Greek and Roman iconography contrasts to a large extent with the preferences
of other ancient Mediterranean traditions. In classical Greece, N. acquired a particular
value as a marker of Greek cultural distinctiveness in opposition to 'barbarians', in
particular the richly clothed Persians.
In the following discussion, the focus is on complete or almost complete N.
involving the exposure e.g. of breasts or genitalia rather than partially exposed bodies,
although lightly clad figures could also be embraced by the Graeco-Roman terms
gymnos and nudus, which are normally translated as 'naked'.

B. Non-Christian.

I. The pre-classical Mediterranean.

Full bodily exposure was relatively uncommon in the pre-classical, iron-age artistic
traditions of the Mediterranean and the Middle East (see Himmelmann, Ideale Nacktheit
in der griechischen Kunst 18/19; cf. Bonfante, emphasising earlier Near Eastern
imagery e.g. of the goddess Ishtar). For example, in Assyrian sculpture of the 9th to 7th
centuries BC, and in related traditions, N. is generally a sign of inferiority, reserved for
representations of captives and the dead bodies of enemies. Even this kind of N. is rare
in later, Achaemenid art. The picture is more complex in Egypt, perhaps partly because
of the range of imagery that survives, which includes more informal and private objects
such as painted stone ostraka. In all periods of Egyptian art we find the selective use of
male and female N. in various media, not only in scenes of military conquest, but in a
wide range of contexts. N. commonly distinguishes relatively lowly individuals:
children and athletic youths, workers, fishermen and peasants, servants and dancing
girls, participants in erotic scenes. But there are also naked female 'fertility figures' from
tombs and houses, which often have very explicitly rendered genitalia, and grave goods
 3

occasionally included naked male figures representing the deceased. Certain deities
could be represented naked (P. Behrens, Art. Nacktheit: Lexikon der Ägyptologie 4,
292/4; O. Goelet, Nudity in ancient Egypt: Source. Notes in the History of Art 12, 2
(Winter 1993) 20-31; cf. G. Robins, Dress, undress and the representation of fertility
and potency in New Kingdom Egyptian art: Kampen 27/40). However, in public and
monumental Egyptian art bodies are rarely fully uncovered, though in all periods female
sculptures are sometimes scantily clad or clothed in revealing draperies that seem to
emphasis their fertility and desirability.

II. Archaic Greece.

Highly schematic naked male and female bodies appear on some Geometric Greek
painted pottery and in figurines of the eight century BC, but it is hard to extract from
them general observations about the role of N. in art and culture during this period.
What is notable is that from around the Late Geometric period (ca. late 8th century BC),
female figures are normally draped while males are commonly naked: a distinction that
prefigures later art (see differing perspectives in Himmelmann, Ideale Nacktheit in der
griechischen Kunst 19f; Bonfante 549; Stewart 34/42).
By the seventh century BC N. had become an important characteristic both of life
in various Greek poleis (chiefly in the context of athletic training and competitions), and
of artistic representations. It is not entirely clear why the phenomenon of 'real life' N.
emerged in archaic Greece and the Greeks themselves in later periods could not
adequately explain it (McDonnell; Stewart 24/42). As an artistic device, N. allowed the
highly idealized physique of perfectly formed men to be exhibited. Consequently it was
not restricted to depictions of athletes but came to serve as a conventional attribute for
heroes, deities, and all action-figures. However, it was never employed very
consistently and there was nothing intrinsically 'heroic' about it (Hölscher,
Historienbilder esp. 43/4. 86. 97. 100. 140. 142; cf. idem, review in Gnomon 65 (1993)
519/28; Hurwit). For example, defeated enemies could be shown naked, while the
heroic victor appeared in armour. It is important to stress that there is no very
compelling reason to believe that Greeks actually fought naked in reality (contra P.A.
Hannah, The reality of Greek male N. Looking to African parallels: Scholia 7 (1998)
17/40). Apparently the incongruity did not matter and the inclusion of realistic features
such as armour was sometimes simply regarded as a distraction from the essential
characterization of the warrior.
Perfectly developed male bodies carried a range of ideological connotations rather
than suggesting idealism for its own sake (C. Sourvinou-Inwood, 'Reading' Greek Death
(1995) 221/240). Physical excellence implied leisure for athletic practice (and therefore
wealth and social status); it suggested a life free from the disfiguring toil of menial
work; it demonstrated preparedness for almost continuous seasonal activity of war and
therefore it pointed to the glory (kleos) that resulted from combat (T. Hölscher, Die
Griechische Kunst (2007), 11/14). It could also carry strong erotic overtones, since
homosexual attraction between young men and older men was idealized amongst the
Greek social elite of the archaic period (Stewart; Steiner esp. 207/34). Sexual
associations are often present in archaic Athenian vases-paintings showing young male
athletes or participants in symposia (individual figures sometimes accompanied by the
slogan 'kalos', 'beautiful'). There are also numerous images of explicit sexual activity
involving both the Dionysiac satyrs, which act as a foil to 'ideal' Athenian citizens, and
 4

human participants. It is almost exclusively in this sort of context that naked females are
regularly found in archaic art, usually in the form of recognizable hetairai (courtesans);
nudity is not therefore suitable for ideal representations of high-class females in this
period (Moraw, Schönheit 7/18).
In general N. in archaic Greek art served to amplify and exaggerate the ideal
physical qualities that Greek men of high status sought to develop through training in
the gymnasion, but art also blurred the distinction between these men and their divine
and heroic counterparts, who invariably exhibited such physical excellence in their
naked bodies. This is particularly so in the conservative male statues known today as
kouroi, in which differences between deities and immortals are marked by only limited
iconographical distinctions (A. Stewart, When is a kouros not an Apollo?: M.A. Del
Chiaro, ed., Corinthiaca. Studies in honour of Darrell A. Amyx (Columbia, MO 1986)
54/70). The pose, and sometimes the bodily proportions, of kouroi are clearly derived
from Egyptian models, but they differ markedly from the Egyptian male statues because
of their regular display of N. This can be regarded as a deliberate 'attribute' of such
figures, in contrast, for example, to the contemporary grave stelai in various parts of
Greece, which depict men with appropriate clothing or objects (Sourvinou-Inwood
221/7).

III. Classical Greece.

a. The ideology of N. and kalokagathia.

Naked kouroi disappeared early in the fifth century BC, yet the ideological value of
sculptural N. survived in other settings. As monuments to aristocratic prestige the
kouroi were largely replaced by a much more expansive repertoire of naturalistic statues
honouring athletic victors, as well as iconographically varied images of deities and
heroes (R.R.R. Smith, Pindar, athletes, and the early Greek statue habit: S. Hornbloer,
C. Morgan, eds., Pindar's poetry, patrons, and festivals (Oxford 2007) 83/139). N. was a
prominent, recurring feature of both kinds of sculpture. It was obviously appropriate for
the naturalistic representation of athletes, but it served as more than just a realistic
attribute. Even clothed statues such as the 'Motya Charioteer' from Sicily (ca. 470s BC)
could emphasis the physique and the sexuality of the athletic body beneath its
coverings. N., or the implication of N., in athletic monuments underlined the ethical
qualities of the excellent young aristocrats who triumphed in agonistic contests.
During the fifth BC the association of physical and moral excellence was
crystalized in the concept of kalokagathia -- the quality of being 'beautiful and good'
(W. Donlan, The origin of Kalòß ka∆gaqo√ß: AmJournPhilol 94 (1973) 365/74; the
abstract noun is not attested until Xen. mem. 1.6.14; cf. elaboration of the ideology in
Tanner, Social structure, cultural rationalisation and aesthetic judgement in classical
Greece: N.K. Rutter / B.A. Sparkes, eds., Word and Image in ancient Greece
(Edinburgh 2000) 183/205, esp. 193/8). Kalokagathia was the invention of the elite, but
its artistic manifestations could be accommodated by the egalitarian ideology of newly
democratic poleis such as Athens. The most famous example of this phenomenon is the
frieze of the Parthenon in Athens (ca. 440 BC). Here a religious cavalcade usually
interpreted as part of the Panathenaic procession involves ranks of young, beardless
riders, many of them wholly or partially naked, with idealized, passive faces. These
generically attractive youngsters (cf. Stewart 75/85) have been interpreted as the
 5

collective embodiment of the citizen population (demos) or its militarily active youth, as
the heroes of the battle of Marathon (J. Boardman, The Parthenon Frieze -- another
view: U. Höckmann / A. Krug, eds. Festschrift Brommer (1977) 39/49), or as the
idealized citizenry of Athens in a mythological past (J.B. Connelly, Parthenon and
Parthenoi: AmJournArch 100 (1996) 53/80). The ambiguity of the iconography, at least
to modern eyes, illustrates how versatile artistic N. had become by the middle of the
fifth century BC. In any case the frieze probably results from the democratic
appropriation of the morally charged imagery that had prevailed in privately
commissioned, aristocratic monuments of the archaic and early classical periods.

b. Narrative N.

During the fifth century BC, male N. becomes ever more common in artistic media
besides free-standing statuary. Its use in narrative pictures and reliefs, particularly in
Athens, may have been encouraged by the image of Persians and other barbarians that
was developed into a stereotype in the aftermath of the Persian Wars (cf. M. Miller,
Persians. The oriental other: Source. Notes in the history of art 15, 1 (Autumn 1995)
39/44; Herodt. 1, 10, 3; Thuc. 1, 5-6). The notional Persian was effeminate and fully
clothed in richly decorated attire from head to toe; his legs were trousered; he typically
fought at a distance from the enemy, using a bow and arrow. In contrast, Greeks were
represented naked in order to emphasise their physical development, manly beauty, and
suitability for direct engagement in hand to hand fighting and active aggression. The
iconographical stereotype of the naked Greek may have gained some currency in the
Persian Empire itself, to judge from one 'Graeco-Persian' intaglio made in the Persian
Empire in the fifth or fourth century BC, on which a clothed Persian cavalryman attacks
a naked Greek warrior (Boardman 44, fig. 2.32c; idem, Persia and the west (London
2000) 173, fig. 5.46 and cf. 160, fig. 5.7).
The use of N. for Greek warriors in historical and mythological battle scenes
increased until towards the end of the century (for example, in the friezes of the Temple
of Athena Nike on the Athenian Acropolis), it had become the norm in narrative reliefs
and vase-paintings, though fighters were also still regularly shown in armour.
The figures represented naked in scenes of this kind are idealized and artists
(notably Polykleitos in his treatise, the Canon) apparently showed some theoretical
interest in the ideal proportions of the body, but the N. itself still did not serve any kind
of abstract classical ideal, as distinct from socially grounded ethical concerns (for
contrasting notions on the existence of 'ideal' N. see Himmelmann, Ideale Nacktheit;
idem, Ideale Nacktheit in der griechischen Kunst; strong critique by Hölscher, Gnomon
65 (1993) 519/28; Clairmont).

c. Female N.

Naked hetairai and occasionally other naked women continued to appear in Athenian
vase-paintings throughout the 5th century BC (Moraw, Schönheit 18/29), and more or
less naturalistic female exposure was an element in some narrative scenes in both
painting and sculpture, especially in mythological images of rape or abduction, as in
centauromachy reliefs (see e.g. Steiner 246/50). In free-standing sculpture such figures
were rarer and are attested largely through later Roman copies, including a number of
semi-naked Amazon statues believed to reflect original works by Polykleitos, Kresilas,
 6

and other classical sculptors (Plin. nat. hist. ; 34.53; M. Weber, Die Amazonen von
Ephesos, JbInst 91 (1976) 28/96). The female sculptural figures do not differ
profoundly from male anatomy until the later 5th century BC. From that period the
clinging drapery on e.g. the female deities of the Parthenon pediments (430s BC), the
balustrade reliefs from the Temple of Athena Nike on the Athenian Acropolis (ca. 410
BC), or the Nike at Olympia by Paionios of Mende (ca. 420 BC) suggest a growing
concern for the naturalistic representation of a distinctive female anatomy.

IV. Late Classical and Hellenistic world.

a. The Aphrodite tradition.

Perhaps around 360 BC, the Athenian sculptor Praxiteles produced a marble cult-statue
of Aphrodite Euploia which was set up in her temple at Knidos (A. Ajootian, Praxiteles:
O. Palagia and J. Pollitt, eds., Personal styles in Greek sculpture (Cambridge 1996)
91/129, here 98/103; A. Corso, The art of Praxiteles 2, The mature years (Rome 2007)
9/187; Nasrallah 251/63). It remained there until the 390s AD, when it was moved to
Constantinople. It was finally destroyed in the burning of the Lauseion in AD 476
(Corso, Praxiteles 2, 183/7). Its form is known through Roman copies and
representations on Knidian provincial coinage of the 3rd century AD (Fig. 1). The
goddess is shown clutching drapery in her left hand, as if coming from her bath; her
right hand is held in front of her groin and her head turns to her left.
The statue is the earliest attested, large-scale representation of a naked goddess.
As far as can be determined from sources which are no doubt embellished, the
production of a naked cult image was innovative, if not necessarily unprecedented
(evidence for precedents surveyed by Spivey 181/2). According to Pliny the Elder (nat.
hist. 36.20; first century AD but drawing on earlier sources), Praxiteles made two
versions of the statue: one naked and the other clothed. The Koans bought the latter,
considering it 'pudicum', while the Knidians's purchase of the naked statue was repaid
by its subsequent celebrity. The extensive mythology that later developed around the
Aphrodite of Knidos obscures its original reception, but also suggests that it was
genuinely original, if not revolutionary, when it was made. Late Hellenistic and Roman
anecdotes, including the late antique account in PsLucian's Erotes (11-17), insist on the
statue's erotic appeal, which led one would-be lover to attempt to copulate with the
image (ibid. 16; Plin. nat. hist. 36.21; Lucian, Eikones 4; further references in Ajootian,
op. cit. 10255). Such stories point to the potential of the image's N. to exert a
psychological (indeed 'pornographic') power over observers (Spivey 173/83; Stewart
97/106). If this effect was intended by Praxiteles, then the image served to mimic the
power of the love goddess herself, who is here depicted in a sort of epiphany, sighted by
the observer emerging from her bath.
The Knidian Aphrodite is credited with starting a long tradition of naked
Aphrodites, and related figures such as nymphs, in Hellenistic and Roman sculpture
(D.M. Brinkerhoff, Hellenistic statues of Aphrodite (New York 1978); C.M. Havelock,
The Aphrodite of Knidos and her successors (Ann Arbor, MI 1995)). The standing
Aphrodites show off the naked female body while drawing further attention to its N.
with gestures of modesty (the hands shielding the groin and breasts). These 'successors'
of Praxiteles's work include the various Roman statues of the so-called Venus Pudica
type, such as the Medici Venus and the Capitoline Venus.
 7

The Knidian Aphrodite and its imitations present idealized figures: faces are
impassive and classical, the bodies are without flaws. But they are considerable more
naturalistic than the thinly clothed or semi-naked female statues of the fifth century BC,
for they pay attention to the distinctive structure and anatomy of the female body, rather
than adapting masculine models. This might be seen to reflect changing attitudes to
biology or physiognomic values. At the same time, in the course of the fourth century
BC, the representation of male N. in sculpture also became more attentive to the variety
and complexity of anatomical structures, with more subtle formulations of ideal
masculinity emerging both in heroic and divine sculptures, and in the portrayal of
figures on late classical funerary reliefs (Hallett, 20/30 surveying iconography of N. in
funerary reliefs).

b. Hellenistic period

The iconography and style of N. in Hellenistic art (3rd to 1st centuries BC) relies
heavily on 5th- and 4th-century BC models. Naked athletes and athletic ruler portraits,
images of Aphrodite and the nymphs, male and female mythological figures, continued
to be made in different media, not only in Greece but across the expanded territory of
the Hellenistic world. Naked body types can generally be related to classical precedents.
Nevertheless the repertoire was expanded (J.J. Pollitt, Art in the Hellenistic age
(Cambridge 1986) 78/149; B.H. Fowler, The Hellenistic aesthetic (Madison, WI 1989);
Stewart 205/30). Roman copies testify to a new tradition of naked Hermaphroditic
figures, the original purpose of which remains rather unclear (A. Ajootian, The only
happy couple. Hermaphrodites and gender: Koloski-Ostrow / Lyons 220/42). Almost as
obscure in its origins is an increase in non-ideal N. and ugly bodies: representations of
aged men and women or bodies with deformities, especially in the form of sculptures
and figurines (Fowler, Hellenistic aesthetic 66/78; H.P. Laubscher, Fischer und
Landleute (1982)). Realistic representations of naked infants and erotes -- the ancestors
of Renaissance putti -- become abundant. N. was therefore made available for figures
that were not straightforwardly desirable, admirable or beautiful.

c. Art beyond Greece.

The artistic cultures on the fringes of the Greek world during the Archaic, Classical, and
Hellenistic periods were heavily influenced by Greek artistic conventions. Many of the
forms of N. surveyed above can be found in the art of Etruria and Italic cultures, in
'Graeco-Scythian' art of the northern Black Sea regions, and in the eastern Hellenistic
lands as far as Bactria or Gandhara. However, there are some clear indications that the
traditional Greek display of the naked body was not straightforwardly acceptable or
welcome in all places or periods. For example, some late archaic Athenian vases
manufactured for the Etruscan market seem deliberately to clothe painted figures so
that, for instance, otherwise naked male athletes and symposiasts are dressed in
perizomata (loincloths) while clothed women replace naked hetairai (L. Bonfante,
Etruscan nudity: Source. Notes in the history of art 12, 2 (Winter 1993) 47/55;
McDonnell 186/9, including Etruscan examples in other media). A series of so-called
Graeco-Scythian gorytoi (quiver covers) with mould-made figures in gold repoussé,
which were probably made by Greek or Hellenized artists on the northern Black Sea
coast, represent a version of the myth of Achilles on Skyros in which the genitalia of the
 8

naked male figures have been strategically covered by lively drapery (Hallett 7; St.
Petersburg example: Road to Byzantium 130 no. 9). Rome itself could also be seen as a
culture on the margins of the Greek world, with an ambivalent attitude to the traditions
of N.

V. The Roman world.

a. Attitudes to N. in art.

Rome inherited the customs of public bathing and naked or semi-naked exercise from
the Greek world, but Roman attitudes to public N. were not unambiguously favourable.
Notwithstanding the growing prominence of N. in real-life practices, Roman writers
often rhetorically associate it with shame and sexual transgression, presenting it as a
morally corrosive import (e.g. Cic. Tusc. 4.70; Hallett, 61/101). Pliny the Elder saw a
comparable distinction between Greek and Roman preferences in art. Referring to
bronze statuary he claims that 'the Greek manner is to cover nothing, whereas the
Roman, military approach is to add breastplates' (Plin. nat. hist. 34.18). Nevertheless,
the Greek iconography of N. seems to have been comfortably accommodated within
Roman art. The paradox is neatly illustrated by an anecdote concerning Livia, the wife
of the emperor Augustus. Dio Cassius (58.2.4) tells us that a group of naked men
encountered her and faced execution as a consequence. Livia saved them, declaring that
they were no different from statues to chaste women. However apocryphal, the story
suggests that N. had acquired an even more conventional and symbolic character in the
context of art. The repetitiveness of nude figure types in Graeco-Roman art had inured
observers to it and prevented them from viewing it literally.

b. Naked portraiture

From as early as the 2nd century BC, Greek-style N. was being used for a hybrid form
of male portrait statuary that combined more or less realistic, individualized facial
features with idealized naked bodies (Hallett 102/58). The earliest examples include the
so-called 'Pseudo-Athlete' from Delos (ca. late 2nd/early 1st century BC), which
probably portrays a Roman businessman, and the roughly contemporary 'Tivoli
General'. The ultimate source for the naked bodies is to be found in heroic figures of the
5th and 4th centuries BC, but a more immediate precedent was provided by statues of
Hellenistic kings. Initially many statues in this format may have been honorific
dedications by Greek communities under Roman rule, the patrons and artists adapting
traditional iconography to their new subject matter (Tanner, Portraits, power, and
patronage in the late Roman republic: JRS 90 (2000) 18/50; Hallett 43/52).
Naked or semi-naked portrait statues continued to be used throughout the Roman
period (Hallett 159/307). The recipients of honorific portraits were often members of
the imperial family (H.G. Niemeyer, Studien zur statuarischen Darstellung der
römischen Kaiser (1968) 54/63). In some cases, as with the statue of Claudius from
Lanuvium (Hallett 169, pl. 96), the intention is to assimilate the ruler or his relatives
explicitly to the iconography of a god (in that case Jupiter). More usually, however,
naked images honouring the imperial family draw in a more subtle way upon the range
of divine, heroic, regal, and athletic connotations developed in art since the classical
period.
 9

Male N. was also employed in honorific statues for private individuals and in
funerary monuments. Around the second half of the 1st century AD, female nude
portraits emerged and continued to be used until the early 3rd century (H. Wrede, 'Das
Mausoleum der Claudia Semne und die bürgerliche Plastik der Kaiserzeit', RM 78
(1971) 125/66; E. D'Ambra The calculus of Venus: Kampen 219/32; also Wrede
Consecratio in formam deorum (1981) addressing various types of divine iconography).
These female nudes are especially associated with 'middle class' funerary monuments
such as those of freedwomen, though they may have originated with the imperial
family. In these portraits the naked or semi-naked body of Venus is attached to an
individualized head. The body invariably adheres to one of the common statuary types
of the goddess, which once again suggests that the very conventional character of the
naked 'costume' rendered it innocuous. In these statues the Venus body symbolizes
general qualities associated with the individual portrayed, such as beauty and fertility
(D'Ambra).

c. Ideal sculpture and mythological imagery

The portrait statues are important examples of the Roman appropriation of traditional
Greek N., whereby its meaning was altered. But the most pervasive form of N. in
Roman art was that of traditional Greek mythological imagery, which was common in
houses and villas, in public buildings such as bath complexes, on portable objects and
luxury items, and of course in the context of religion. 'Ideal-sculpture', representing
divine, mythological, or generically idealized subjects in past Greek styles, represents
the majority of sculpture produced for baths and domestic spaces in the Roman empire.
It is unsurprising to find that naked figures were common in baths (types surveyed
H. Manderscheid, Die Skulpturenausstattung der kaiserzeitlichen Thermenanlagen
(1981) 28/34). They not only reflected on the N. of bathers, but more particularly on the
cultivation of the body that took place in baths. The same applies to exercise grounds
(palaestrae). The most famous Roman copy of Polykleitos's Doryphoros (spear-bearer)
was found in the small 'Samnite Palaestra' in Pompeii (D. Kreikenbom, Bildwerke nacj
Polyklet (1990) 163, III 2, pl. 108/13; cf. Quint. inst. 5, 12, 21).
Yet the subject matter of sculptures, paintings and mosaics in bath complexes
draws on the same general iconographical repertoire employed in private houses. The
common aim is the evocation of a Greek cultural heritage appropriate to private leisure
(otium). Houses and villas were replete with mythological imagery, in which naked
heroes and divinities were conspicuous. Pompeii and its neighbouring sites, destroyed
in AD 79, offer the best insight into the role of mythological figures in fresco panels
and garden sculptures (see e.g. P. Zanker, Pompeii. Public and Private Life (Cambridge,
MA 1998) 135/203). Little of the iconography is demonstrably Roman in origin. Most
of it reflects or copies classical and Hellenistic Greek traditions extending back to the
fifth century BC. Sometimes, however, the contemporary world intrudes. For example,
a number of scantily dressed goddesses or mythological figures in Pompeian paintings
wear Roman hairstyles (e.g. painting of Mars and Venus in the House of Mars and
Venus, Pompeii VII 9, 47).
Naked mythological figures were, in fact, pervasive in Roman art and crafts,
appearing not only in sculptures (including carved sarcophagi and other reliefs),
paintings and mosaics, but also on silver and bronze, furniture, bone and ivory objects,
coins, jewellery, and so on. This fact is of considerable importance, for mythological
 10

imagery provided a niche for naked imagery, allowing it to survive through late
antiquity and the early Christian era.

C. Late Antiquity

I. Jewish Art.

Like other well established motifs in non-Christian art, N. was adopted in the Jewish as
well as Christian art of the later Roman empire and in certain contexts it played a
prominent role, despite opposition to real-life displays of N. in the Mishnah and
elsewhere (M. Poliakoff, 'They should cover their shame'. Attitudes toward nudity in
Greco-Roman Judaism: Source. Notes in the history of art 12, 2 (Winter 1993) 56/62;
Smith esp. 218/20). The unprecedented profusion of figural imagery on the painted
walls of the synagogue at Dura Europos (ca. AD 244/5) includes one particularly stark
staging of N. in the form of pharaoh's daughter, who stands unselfconsciously in the
water of the Nile like a gesticulating Venus Anadyomene, holding the infant Moses
(also naked), while heavily draped companions attend her (C. Kraeling, The synagogue
= The excavations at Dura-Europos. Final report 8, 1 (New Haven 1956) 169/78, pl.
67f; W.G. Moon, Nudity and narrative. Observations on the frescoes from the Dura
synagogue, JournAmAcadRel 60 (1992) esp. 595/6).
Dura is hardly typical, however, and the figure above may be a carefully designed
exception to the norm. Later Jewish imagery in mosaics exhibits a limited concern
about N. in the service of narrative or allegorical symbolism. In the mosaic zodiac of the
Hammath Tiberias synagogue (late 4th century AD) the symbolic figures are naked
(Aquarius) and uncircumcised (Libra and Gemini); yet in later mosaics of the same
kind, which are apparently more distant from the non-Jewish models, clothing is added.
Such examples need not be representative of Jewish views in general, however, and late
antique art reveals a spectrum of attitudes towards figurative, mythological and even
'pagan' imagery (S. Fine, Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman world (Cambridge 2005)
esp. 82/123, and 196/205 on zodiacs).
A differing perspective is revealed by the attitudes of Jews in the Roman empire
to the sculptural decoration of baths. In practice concerns about the idolatrous nature of
bath sculptures did not prevent Jews from using baths decorated with pagan images, and
while N. in itself could be problematic, the nakedness of classical statuary was not
singled out for attention. (Y. Eliav, The Roman bath as a Jewish institution:
JournStudJud 31 (2000) 416/54). In a rather different context, in the Cave of Letters on
the Dead Sea, non-Jewish bronze vessels of the Bar Kokhba period were found, on one
of which the naked breasts of Thetis had been deliberately rubbed to deface them; yet
more attention was paid to removing the faces of figures on the objects, which suggests
a concern with idolatry rather than N. (Y. Yadin, The Finds from the Bar Kokhba period
in the Cave of Letters (Jerusalem 1963), esp. 44, 58/63 no. 7, fig. 16, pl. 17).

II. Earliest Christian Art.

The archaeological invisibility of Christian art in the first two centuries of the Roman
empire suggests that Christians were also circumspect about which kinds of secular
imagery to patronize and adapt. Around AD 200 Clement of Alexandria specifically
 11

criticizes the use of erotic iconography on seal rings -- images of eromenoi and hetairai
(Paid. 3.59.2-3.60.1; cf. Prot. 4.61.1 criticizing images of 'naked girls'; P.C. Finney, The
Invisible god. The earliest Christians on art (1994) 108/15). He attacks images of Venus
whose N. is their divine attribute, though his concern is mainly with their deceitful,
pornographic power (Prot. 4.57.2-4; Nasrallah 280/92). Public displays of N. in the
baths and elsewhere were frequently presented as shameful (Smith 220). Nevertheless,
when recognizably Christian art does appear, around the early third century, it relies
heavily on non-Christian formal models and motifs, including the naked body. There is
no suggestion of opposition to the representation male N. in itself, but its deployment is
never indiscriminate.
Sometimes it serves to denote the status or role of particular characters in biblical
narratives, lending them verisimilitude. At other times the naked body-types employed
assimilate individuals to appropriate pre-Christian prototypes. Thus, in the numerous
early Christian images of Jonah thrown from his ship, in catacomb paintings and other
media, the sailors are appropriately and conventionally rendered as small, humble,
naked figures and Jonah himself is much the same. However, in the scenes of Jonah
reclining under the gourd tree there is more explicit attention to the form of his naked
body, which is manifestly derived from pre-Christian representations of Endymion (M.
Lawrence, Three pagan themes in Christian art: M. Meiss, ed., Essays in honor of Erwin
Panofsky = De artibus opuscula 40 (New York 1961) 323/34, at 324/7). The common
funerary iconography of Endymion as a beautiful youth reclining in a divinely induced
sleep seems a surprising model for Christian art, but it was abstracted from its erotic,
mythological context in order to present Jonah in his own blessed repose. This is a
blissful consummation: a vision of heavenly salvation, rather than the temporary and
illusory comfort that is actually recounted in Jon. 4.
The reclining Jonah provides the best illustration of how the idealized, naked
figure-types of Graeco-Roman art could be appropriated in suitable Christian narratives,
but there are other examples, notably Daniel in the lion's den (Jensen 171/7) and most
obviously the story of Adam and Eve (discussed below). (For further instances of
narrative N. see Smith 221.)
The earliest baptismal scenes, in the catacombs of Rome, also involve full N.
(Ferguson). These include two third-century scenes in the Catacombs of St. Calixtus
involving diminutive naked baptizands generally (and probably correctly) interpreted as
Christ himself (H. Leclercq, Art. Baptème de Jésus: DACL 21, 346/80, esp. 350/3; J.
Kollwitz, Das Christusbild des dritten Jahrhunderts (1953) 26/30; Ferguson 123/5) The
small scale and lack of detail in such scenes perhaps rendered them unproblematic and
they could be viewed as merely accurate representations of baptismal immersion during
which baptizands of both sexes apparently removed all clothing. Yet N. was
symbolically important in early baptismal ritual as a demonstration of rebirth and these
connotations may explain its selective use in Old Testament scenes connected with
resurrection (see H. Leclercq, Art. Nudité baptismale: DACL 122, 1801/5; Smith).

III. Later Christian Perspectives

a. Continuity and resistence.

From the 4th and 5th centuries AD there is better extant evidence of active Christian
hostility to N. in art, which partly reflects Christians' ability to do something about the
 12

pagan N. that confronted them in every sphere of life. The most striking indication is
provided by sculptures which have been subjected to iconoclastic assaults. While such
violence was often directed at the faces of statues, and was certainly not restricted to
unclothed figures, a number of naked sculptures suffered deliberate 'castration' and even
damage to exposed breasts (N. Hannestad, Castration in the baths: N. Birkle et al., eds.,
Macellum. Culinaria archaeologica (Festschrift Robert Fleischer) (2001) 67/77). This
was the fate of several statues, for example, in the baths at Salamis on Cyprus (V.
Karageorghis and C. Vermeule, Salamis 2 (1966), esp. 6 and 11/2 no. 3; 18/9 no. 8;
29/30 no. 21; 30/1 no. 22), and the three graces in the Southern Baths at Perge
(Hannestad 71, fig. 3; M.E. Özgür, Sculptures of the Museum in Antalya 1 (Antalya
1996) no. 30). In a different setting, the genitals as well as faces were at some point
removed from the Apollo reliefs in the theatre at Hierapolis (F. D'Andria / T. Ritti, Le
sculture del teatro = Hierapolis. Scavi e ricerche 2 (Rome 1985) 10. 35/41, pls. 12f.).
Such responses may represent a reaction to the psychological or spiritual powers of
sculpted bodies, rather than an intellectual objection to their 'indecency'. An instructive
anecdote is recorded by the fifth-century church father Quodvultdeus (dim. temp. 6, 9).
He recounts how a nun at Carthage in the 430s AD saw a 'simulacrum... Veneris
impudicae' in the baths (no doubt in fact a conventional image in the Hellenistic
tradition of the Venus 'Pudica') and, imitating its pose, allowed herself to be possessed
by a demon. She was subsequently cured and the statue was destroyed. The story points
to the perceived risks posed by pagan statues in general, but particularly those to which
traditional N. iconography lent an erotic charge. However, it also implies that such bath
decorations were still a normal sight in this period (on the endurance of classical
sculpture generally see N. Hannestad, Tradition in late antique sculpture (Aarhus
1994)).
Despite these, perhaps isolated, cases of hostility to nakedness in public art, the
classical tradition of heroic and divine N. continued to thrive, especially in domestic and
luxury art, where the traditional conventions of genre and subject-matter expected it.
Mythological scenes with classically naked heroes were represented on silver vessels as
late as the 6th and 7th centuries, notably in several silver dishes preserved in St
Petersburg. On one, a very conspicuously naked Ulysses quarrels with Ajax over the
possession of Achilles's armour, with Athena as judge (see further S. Moraw, 'Ideale
Nacktheit'). On another dish, a naked Meleager poses frontally next to Atalanta, whose
short tunic leaves her right breast exposed (Fig. 3). A seventh-century silver flask bears
frontal and rear views of a nude nereid on its two sides, as if to emphasise the figures'
exposure. (All examples in the State Hermitage Museum: L. Matzulewitsch,
Byzantinische Antike. Studien auf Grund der Silbergefässe der Eremitage (1929) 54/8,
pl. 35; 9/17, pl. 1; 89/91, pls. 19/21). Further examples of this kind could be cited. All
of them reproduce body-types and poses that had been well established several centuries
earlier.
Naked heroes, as well as cupids, nereids, and similar, are also frequently found on
the so-called Coptic textiles of Egypt between the 4th and 7th centuries as well as in
architectural and funerary sculpture and other media of the 'minor arts': bone, ivory,
ceramics (e.g. Road to Byzantium, passim). Similarly, N. is much in evidence in late
Roman mosaics and wall paintings in the domestic sphere (examples: W. Dorigo, Late
Roman Painting (London 1971) passim).
The persistence of artistic N. in these media is perhaps no more surprising than
the survival of the myths themselves. Classical mythology and its iconographical
 13

conventions could be viewed as part of the heritage of traditional Graeco-Roman

education (paideia) and within this circumscribed realm they appear to have posed no
consistent threat to the educated Christian viewer, nor must they imply any adherence to
lingering pagan beliefs (R. Leader-Newby, Silver and Society in Late Antiquity
(Aldershot, Burlington, VT 2004) 129/71; see also S. Moraw, 'Ideale Nacktheit' for
positive Christian use of mythological nudity). Apollinaris Sidonius's famous reluctance
in the 460s AD to decorate his private baths with scenes of narrative N. may be an
exception that proves the rule (ep. 2, 2, 6), but his comment is part of a rather
conventional recusatio of luxury rather than a straightforward reflection of a
contemporary Christian scruples.
It is notable that figures in the luxury arts of late antiquity were consistently
clothed when they appeared in the context of specifically Christian imagery, as on the
otherwise highly classicizing early 7th-century silver David Plates found in Cyprus
(Leader-Newby 182/195), or in church mosaics. Nevertheless, from the earliest
development of Christian art, there were certain religious subjects, most notably images
of Adam and Eve and of the baptism of Christ, which encouraged apparently
unproblematic displays of the naked body (see below).

b. Adam and Eve.

For Christians considering the moral significance of N. in life and art, the story of
Adam and Eve naturally had a programmatic importance. They appear not infrequently
in the earliest extant Christian art of the 3rd and 4th centuries. Their stark, frontal N.,
which would scarcely be out of place within any non-Christian mythological scene, is
unusual and striking in Christian contexts. It is commonly emphasised further by the
couple's juxtaposition to the clothed figures of other biblical narratives (for example, on
one 4th-century sarcophagus in the Vatican they stand as if embarrassed amidst images
of Christ and his apostles, all heavily swathed in himatia: F. Deichmann, ed.,
Repertorium der christlich-antiken Sarkophage (1967) 22f. no. 25, pl. 8; cf. 11f., no. 12,
pl. 4)
The early Christian images of Adam and Eve could superficially be compared
with idealized nude figures of earlier non-Christian art. Two figures of Eve in the 4th-
century Via Latina Catacomb closely resemble a Venus Pudica (Antonio Ferrua, The
Unknown Catacomb (1990) 62. 94, fig. 30); an earlier, possibly 3rd-century, Adam in
the Catacombs of San Gennaro in Naples has the pose of a classical 'Lysippan' athlete as
he stands next to his own 'Venus Pudica' (L. v. Sybel, Christliche Antike (1906) 1, 167;
2, 124; U.M. Fasola, Le catacombe di S. Gennaro a Capodimonte (Rome 1975) 26f.,
fig. 15). More frequently, however, from the earliest dated representation in the
baptistry at Dura onward (ca. AD 250), the shame of the couple is emphasized by the
use of awkward, tense or stooping poses which depart from pre-Christian figure-types.
Unlike later, medieval depictions, the early Christian figures of Adam and Eve regularly
adhere to the words of Gen. 3.7 by clutching fig-leaves in front of their genitalia (and
thus inventing one of the most important motifs in western art) (Fig. 2).

c. The body of Christ.

It is particularly easy to understand images Adam and Eve as signs of redemption and
reminders of the N. of neophytes undergoing baptism (see above). Thus they are
 14

directly connected with the other main theme for nude representations in the Christian
art of late antiquity: the baptism of Christ.
While the subject of Christ's baptism by immersion in the River Jordan may have
justified his naked representation, it did not by itself demand the uncompromising N.
that actually develops in various media, especially mosaics, from the 4th to 6th
centuries (see survey, with inaccurate engravings, in H. Leclercq, Art. Baptème de
Jésus: DACL 21, 346/80). In contrast, crucifixion scenes, starting with a wooden panel
from the early 5th-century doors of Santa Sabina in Rome, cover the body of Christ at
least in a loin-cloth. Thus the emphasis on Christ's baptismal N. is significant.
In the earlier images on wall-paintings and sarcophagi of the third and fourth
centuries, in which Christ remains a simple, diminutive figure, the evocation of the
child-like neophyte facing rebirth is strong (see above). But the iconography developed
in complexity and by the 5th century much larger-scale and theologically richer scenes
were appearing, notably in the decoration of Italian baptisteries (Ferguson 126/31). The
dome mosaics of the so-called orthodox and Arian baptisteries at Ravenna both
represent Jesus being baptised in the River Jordan (S.K. Kostof, The orthodox baptistry
at Ravenna (New Haven 1965); F.W. Deichmann, Ravenna 2, 1 (1974) 17/47, 251/8
with bibliography). The figure of Christ in the Arian baptistery has provoked particular
discussion because of the effeminate appearance of his youthful, hairless, broad-hipped
body, which contrasts with the adjacent bodies of John the Baptist and the personified
Jordan (Wayne A. Meeks, 'The Image of the Androgyne', History of Religions 13
(1974), 165/208; T. Mathews, The Clash of Gods (1993) 134/8). Whether this
androgynous Christ had any specific value in reflecting beliefs about the transcendence
of sex (cf. Gal. 3.28), the human physicality and sexuality of Christ in the Ravenna
mosaic, in which musculature and submerged genitalia are carefully delineated,
suggests a desire to emphasise his humanity and bodily presence. (However, although
the display of the naked body of Christ served to comment on his nature, it need not
reflect a specifically Arian theology since the Christ of the orthodox baptistery is no less
naked or human).

IV. Byzantium and Islam.

The later afterlife of the Graeco-Roman tradition of N. in art is beyond the scope of this
discussion, but deserves brief comment. Preserved in mythological figures and the
erudite iconography of the luxury arts, classical N. persisted through much of the
Byzantine middle ages although it has a comparatively small place in extant art of the
period. After the seventh century naked figures are rare, and conspicuous genital display
rarer still (B. Zeitle 185/201). It is possible that the period of Byzantine iconoclasm (AD
726-843) resulted in more consistent views about which kinds of figurative imagery
were safe and acceptable (Zeitler 193/6). N. is certainly less frequent in Byzantine art
after Iconoclasm than it is in Medieval art of the west.
Given the tendency to avoid strongly figurative imagery within early Islamic art,
it is unsurprising that N. is scarcely employed in the art of the non-Byzantine Middle
East. However, that the ancient tradition of N. in art could thrive sporadically even here
is spectacularly demonstrated by the wall paintings of the eighth-century Ummayyad
bath house at Qusayr 'Amra, which include large-scale displays of naked female, flesh.
These figures contributed to Alois Riegl's conviction that the complex must be a pre-
Islamic work of the fourth or fifth century (G. Fowden, Qusayr 'Amra (Berkeley,
 15

London 2004), 19/25). Similarly there were explicit and realistic naked or partially
statues in the throne room of the roughly contemporary Qasr Al-Mushatta (L.
Trümpelmann, Die Skulpturen von Mschatta ArchAnz (1965) 235/75). The
iconographical genealogy of such figures is partly Sasanian, but largely Graeco-Roman,
and they conflict both with opposition to public N. in the Quran and with the aniconic
tendencies in the early decoration of religious spaces in the Muslim world (Fowden,
Qusayr 'Amra, esp. 57/79). Consequently they offer eloquent testament to the persistent
attraction of pre-Christian iconographies in radically different cultural contexts.

General bibliography

G. Becatti, Art. Nudo: EncArteAnt 5, 576/81.

J. Boardman, The diffusion of classical art in antiquity (London 1994) passim.
L. Bonfante, Nudity as a costume in Classical art: AmJournArch 93 (1989) 543/70.
D. Brinkerhoff, Hellenistic Statues of Aphrodite (New York 1978).
H. Bulle, Der schöne Mensch in Altertum. Eine Geschichte der Körperideals bei
Ägyptern, Orientalen, Griechen (1898; 3rd edition with additional images and
reduced text 1922).
C.W. Clairmont, Classical Attic tombstones. Introductory volume (Kilchberg 1993)
137/59.
K. Clark, The nude. A study in ideal form (London 1956).
E. Ferguson, Baptism in the early church. History, theology, and liturgy in the first five
centuries (Grand Rapids, MI 2009) 123/53.
G. Ferrari, Figures of speech. Men and maidens in ancient Greece (Chicago, London
2002) esp. 112/126, 162/178.
G. Fowden, Qusayr 'Amra (Berkeley, London 2004) 57/79.
C. Hallet, The Roman nude (Cambridge 2005).
C. Havelock, The Aphrodite of Knidos and her successors (Ann Arbor, MI 1995).
N. Himmelmann, Ideale Nacktheit = Abhandlungen der Rheinisch-Westfälischen
Akademie der Wissenschaften 73 (1985).
N. Himmelmann, Ideale Nacktheit in der griechischen Kunst (1990).
T. Hölscher, Griechische Historienbilder des 5. und 4. Jahrhunderts v.Chr. (1973).
T. Hölscher, Die Griechische Kunst (2007) 11/14.
T. Hölscher, review of Himmelmann: Gnomon 65 (1993) 519/28.
J. Hurwit, The problem with Dexileos. Heroic and other nudities in Greek art
AmJournArch 111 (2007) 35/60.
R. Jensen, Understanding early Christian art (New York 2000) esp. 171/8.
N. Kampen, ed., Sexuality in ancient art (Cambridge 1996).
E.C. Keuls, The reign of the phallus. Sexual politics in ancient Athens (Berkeley 1993).
O. Koloski-Ostrow / C.L. Lyons, eds., Naked truths. Women, sexuality, and gender in
classical art and archaeology (London, New York 1997).
M. McDonnell, The Introduction of athletic nudity. Thucydides, Plato, and the vases:
JHS 111 (1991) 182/93.
G. Métraux, Prudery and chic in late antique clothing, in E. Edmondson / A. Keith, eds.,
Roman dress and the fabrics of Roman culture (Toronto and London 2008).
 16

W. Moon, Nudity and narrative. Observations on the frescoes from the Dura synagogue:
Journal of the American Academy of Religion 60 (1992) 587/658 = idem, ed.,
Polykleitos, the Doryphoros, and Tradition (Madison, WI 1995) 283/316.
S. Moraw, 'Ideale Nacktheit' oder Diskreditierung eines überkommenen Heldenideals?
Der Streit um die Waffen des Achill auf einer spätantiken Silberschale: K. Junker
/ A. Stähli, eds., Original und Kopie. Formen und Konzepte der Nachahmung in
der antiken Kunst (2008) 213/225.
S. Moraw, Schönheit und Sophrosyne. Zum Verhältnis von weiblicher Nacktheit und
bürgerlichem Status in der attischen Vasenmalerei: JbInst 118 (2003) 1/47.
L.S. Nasrallah, Christian responses to Roman art and architecture. The second-century
church amid the spaces of empire (New York 2010).
R. Osborne, Men without clothes. Heroic nakedness and Greek art: Gender and History
9 (1997) 504-28.
A. Richlin, ed., Pornography and representation in Greece and Rome (Oxford 1992).
The Road to Byzantium. Luxury arts of antiquity (London 2006).
J. Smith, The garments of shame: History of Religions 5 (1966) 217/38.
Source. Notes in the History of Art 12, 2 (Winter 1993) 20-31.
N. Spivey, Understanding Greek sculpture (London 1996).
D.T. Steiner, Images in mind. Statues in archaic and classical Greek literature and
thought (Princeton 2001).
A. Stewart, Art, desire, and the body in ancient Greece (Cambridge 1997).
L. Thommen, Antike Körpergeschichte (Zürich 2007), esp. 59/74.
B. Zeitler, Ostentatio genitalium. Displays of nudity in Byzantium: L. James, ed.,
Desire and denial in Byzantium (Aldershot 1999) 185/201.

Potential figures

1. Roman copy of the Aphrodite of Cnidus, ca. 1st century AD (original ca. 350 BC)
(Rome, Vatican Museums)

2. Painting of Adam and Eve in the Catacomb of Saints Peter and Marcellinus, Rome,
4th century AD.

3. Silver dish with representation of Meleager and Atalanta, made in Constantinople,

AD 613-29 (St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum).