Table of Contents

List of Plates Introduction Part One: Theorizing the Female Nude 1. Framing the Female Body 2. A Discourse on the Naked and the Nude 3. A Study of Ideal Art 4. Aesthetics and the Female Nude 5. Obscenity and the Sublime Part Two: Redrawing the Lines 1. `The Damaged Venus' 2. The Framework of Tradition 3. The Lessons of the Life Class 4. Art Criticism and Sexual Metaphor 5. Breaking Open the Boundaries 6. Redrawing the Lines Part Three: Cultural Distinctions 1. Sacred Frontiers 2. Pure and Motivated Pleasure 3. Policing the Boundaries 4. Displaying the Female Body 5. Erotic Art: A Frame for Desire List of Works Cited Index

About the Author

Lynda Nead

Reviews

`... this is a book which will be universally welcomed ... clearly written and beautifully paced, it does not avoid the difficult aspects of the theoretical and philosophical underpinning of even the most commonplace utterances on art forms seen as productive of contemplative pleasure and excited arousal.' - Marcia Pointon, Times Higher Educational Supplement