Tim Marlow examines art such as the Venus of Willendorf and the Venus de Milo. We will explore through images such as these just what we can learn about why Man first illustrated the naked body in these specific ways.

In this Episode of The Nude in Art we look at the role that the nude played in the Renaissance. Tim Marlow travels to England, France and Italy as part of a lively visual journey illustrating how the Christian idea of nudity associated with sin was replaced with ideas of nudity being associated with beauty and sensuality. Some of the art that Tim visits include Botticelli's Birth of Venus, Michelangelo's David and Giotto's The Last Judgement.

In The Enlightenement, Tim Marlow examines works of art such as Rembrandt's The Anatomy Lesson, Ingre's Turkish Bath and Rodin's The Age of Bronze. All illustrate the many different uses the nake form was now having. For some, it represented virtue, for others, vice. It was used to shock, to coerce, to titillate, to impress, and to instruct.

In The Modern period of art we deal with Manet's Olympia, Picasso's Les Demoiselles D'Avignon, and Bacon's Triptych are among those artworks used to illustrate how the 20th century changed everything. Emotional truth overcame physical realism. With photography and film, nothing seemed beyond the artists' interest or capabilities. But, as the series concludes, is our interpretation of the nude really that much different to our ancestors' 30,000 years ago?