Seen from Behind : Perspectives on the Male Body and Renaissance Art

'Although the text is remarkably playful [. . .], its rhetorical lightness is paired with substantial argument'  - Burlington Magazine

A scholarly book exploring the motif of male buttocks in Renaissance art

Renaissance bodies, dressed and undressed, have not lacked attention in art historical literature, but scholarship on the male body has generally concentrated on phallic-oriented masculinity and been connected to issues of patriarchy and power. This original book examines the range of meaning that has been attached to the male backside in Renaissance art and culture, the transformation of the base connotation of the image to high art, and the question of homoerotic impulses or implications of admiring male figures from behind. Representations of the male body's behind have often been associated with things obscene, carnivalesque, comical, or villainous.

Presenting serious scholarship with a deft hand, Seen From Behind expands our understanding of the motif of the male buttocks in Renaissance art, revealing both continuities and changes in the ways the images convey meaning and have been given meaning.

Details

• Author: Patricia Lee Rubin,  professor of Renaissance art at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
• Hardcover: 288 pages | 263 colour and black and white illustrations
• Date published: November 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN: 978-0300236552
• Product Dimensions: 29.2 x 22 cm