Aldrin B. Abestano Jr.

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Berger's Notion of Nudity in Western art

John Berger visualizes being naked as being one’s self. His concept of nude is being seen
by others but not recognized for oneself. Nudity must be viewed as an object for Him. For people
interested in European painting, nakedness is significant. "To be nude is to be without clothes,"
Kenneth Clark says. It has nothing to do with art. Nudity, on the other hand, is a form of art." For
European culture, naked means being aware of being seen by the audience because they are not
naked as they are, but how you see them. The second episode of John Berger’s ways of seeing
presented the story of “Adam and Eve” and how they become aware of being naked. This story
has two key features in Berger's opinion. First, they become conscious of their nakedness after
eating the fruit. Second, as a form of punishment, the woman is blamed and made dependent on
the man.

For other traditions, nakedness is a celebration of sexual love, when they see paintings of
naked men and women, for them, it’s something else but for the Oil painting the second person is
considered to be a stranger looking at the picture and that the only rival of a male spectator is a
Cupid. According to Berger, the woman in paintings stares at the spectator staring at her, and her
nakedness is an expression of the male viewer's feelings, not her own. The woman shown in the
painting does not show expression of Her own feelings rather, it is a representation of her
obedience to His demands.

During this period, European humanism, which comprises a strong feeling of the
individual, had a strong influence on European philosophy. The concept of art and women are very
unique and have strong meanings. From the clip it was said that “woman is always dressing to
show who they really are and nudity is a uniform as a sign of being ready for sexual pleasure” and
that’s why it considers the male as the ideal spectator because men assess them based on their
appearance.