Frontal
nudity

History seems to reach a significant turning point in 1564, when the pope personally commanded that "indecent" parts in Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel should be overpainted, at a date when the artist was still alive! A copy of the uncensored state shows the differences.

From that moment on, within religious art, frontal nudity nearly entirely disappeared, and older works often were transformed to fit the new taste. However, for the secular arts throughout Baroque, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Impressionism and the 20th century, the nude remains the favorite subject of graphic artists, even though it is often used under the pretext of allegoric or mythological scenes.

And what about today? I am afraid that our 21st century could become the end of the line for frontal nudity in the arts all together, since a not so small part of the public already considers any artwork that shows intimate parts as being pornographic. And according to the guidelines of modern "political correctness," nudity has even been declared harmful to youth and to human society: web sites like mine are blocked from public computers due to the simple presence of the word "nude."