The Nude



Long before the advent of the nude as a theme in ‘fine art’, abstracted carvings of naked female forms, known as ‘Sheela-na-gigs’ were placed adjacent to the doors of churches or in the walls of castles during the Middle Ages, probably in a superstitious belief that they would ward off evil.   While in the eighteenth century, the nude was commonly addressed in the guise of mythological or literary figures, over time, painted images of the nude were increasingly unusual.

 

By the early part of the twentieth century social and religious attitudes, and the introduction of censorship laws led to notoriety for that those Irish artists who included nude figures in their art. Artists such as Roderic O’Conor, William Orpen, Mainie Jellett, Patrick Collins, and others, were generally working outside of Ireland when they included nude figures in their work.


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