Nudity in the fine art of Austria-Hungary at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Idealization, naturalism and eroticism

Abstract

The study aims to identify the main directions that the fine art of Austria-Hungary at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries followed in the field of portraying the nude human body. To do so, a number of works by Austro-Hungarian masters (G. Klimt, K. Moser, O. Kokoschka, F. von Bayros, M. Liebermann, etc.) who worked during the specified period were analyzed on the basis of the collections of museums in Vienna, as well as electronic collections and catalogs of other foreign museums. The analysis helped to identify three main trends in nudity depiction: idealization, characteristic of conservative art; opposed to idealization, naturalism, found in the works by more progressive artists; and eroticism, which represents a balance between the two aforementioned extremes, in other case the work loses its erotic charge. Although depictions of nudity are often the subject of art criticism, the three-part classification developed for this study seems to be a new and productive form of examining the topic.