Nudity the Norm?

Does the fact that Greek vases depict figures in the nude mean that the ancient Greeks saw beauty in the human body?as artists have throughout time?or at the Greeks often went without clothes?

In LiveScience.com, Corey Binns quotes historian Jeffrey Hurwit as saying, “In ancient Greek art, there are many different kinds of nudity that can mean many different things. Sometimes they are contradictory.” Most historians think that the Greeks mostly kept their clothes on?it was the Romans, who came later, who were the sexual libertines.

Hurwit says that men did walk around naked in some situations, since the togas they wore were impractical and uncomfortable. There were all-male nude get-togethers called symposia, and athletes competed in the nude. Because Greek art so often depicts athletic events, since they were an important part of the culture, it’s easy to assume that nudity was the norm, but as Hurwit points out, “?In combat, nakedness [would have been] suicidal.”

Art credit: freeimages.co.uk

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