Perceptions of Third Year Fine Arts Students
In Far Eastern University on the Use
Of Nude Models in Art

In Partial Fulfillment of The Subject Requirements
In English 8
(Technical Writing)

Submitted to:
Mr. Rogelio Ramos Guce
English Department
Institute of Arts and Sciences

by
Alimorong, Aislin Nika
Alterado, Charles
Caga-anan, Mark Nathaniel
Elpedes, Jhune-Marx
Nuñez, Domnilourd
Pangilinan, Shem
Salvador, Mikaela
Valdez, Judah
Yatco, Ma. Barbara

FT0933

First Semester S.Y. 2011 - 2012

CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

In the early days, great masters like da Vinci, Michaelangelo and Botticelli had been using nude models as references in their artworks for religious purposes. Up until now, this idea is still being implemented by artists but it is now more about aesthetics.

Nude art generally refers to the artists’ depiction of artistic elements of nudity instead of actually showing the naked form of humans.

Different cultures react differently on the use of nude models in art. It is through the aesthetic view of nude art that most countries accept this kind of art (Changing Depictions of Art Nudes, 2011).

Art schools including Far Eastern University also accept the use of nude models in art such as paintings, sculpture, photography, and the like.

In the curriculum of the Fine Arts Department, there are subjects like Anatomy, Life Drawing and Life Painting wherein nude models are used as references in depicting the human figures.

Fine Arts students in Far Eastern University have been exposed to nude art since their first year in school and it is rather important to know their perceptions on the use of nude models in art.

Background of the Study

Nude art has always been prevalent in our society, starting in prehistoric times. However, the major difference is that while earlier it served religious purposes, it is now more about aesthetics.
Fine art nude generally refers to the depiction of artistic elements of nudity, rather than its provocative form (naked). In Europe, art nudes between the medieval period to the late 1800s almost never had any sexual overtones. In the 19th century France, where nudity was quite prevalent, classical nudity was acceptable to the general public.
The earliest depiction of the nude male form in classical art dates back to the fifth century BC, and the female form to the late classical period in Greek art. Archaic Greek art represented deities and heroes in heroic nudity, which continued in the Roman and classical periods. Even the Renaissance and Pre-Raphaelite artists depicted the beauty and sensuality of the human form.
However, the changing societal attitudes changed the perception of art nudes. For example, the famous Renaissance paintings of Michel Angelo were covered with fig leaves to protest against art nudes. Also, the Western society is perceived to be less open to accepting art nudes than other societies (Changing Depictions of Art Nudes, 2011).

Objectives of the Study

This study aims to find out how the students perceive nude art, how the students react on the said subject and to know if they can be appreciative of the subject. The researchers also aim to help improve the schools’ teaching approach in nude art.

Research Paradigm

In this study, the use of nude models is the variable which will be controlled throughout the research. Perceptions of the students will be the result of the cause. Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Statement of the Problem

The third year IARFA students of FEU have different views on nude art. This study aims to answer the following questions:

1. How do the students find nude models?
2. How do the students feel about the real artistic value of fine nude art?

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

This study did not include all third year Fine Art students enrolled in the Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts on the current school year 2011 - 2012. It is only limited to 35 students of IARFA.

Significance of the Study

This study is significant to the following:

To students, whose perceptions in nude art are to be identified by the researchers;

To art teachers, who are the ones helping the students understand art better;

To art enthusiasts, who will be able to understand how different people view nude art;

To people that are against nude art, who will be able to understand the beauty of nude art.

Definition of Terms

Aesthetics. A branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty.

Art. The product or process of deliberately arranging items (often with symbolic significance) in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect.

Nudity. The state of wearing no clothing.

Nude art. A work of art that takes the naked human form as its dominant subject.

Perception. The process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information.

CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

Local Literature

In his recent coffee-table book “The Lives and Loves of Artists and Models” (320 pages, 243 illustrations), Manuel “Manny” D. Duldulao pays tribute to the models, whose identities are relatively unknown, and extols their vital role in the artists’ lives and creations. He travels back and forth in time by exploring the attitude and concept of nude art and the story behind the unflinching relationships between the artists and their respective models.

The most interesting topics are the historical accounts of nude models like a Greek farm girl named Phyrne (350 B.C.) to Sandro Botticelli’s on “The Birth of Venus” (1484) during the Renaissance period, Leonardo da Vinci's controversial “Mona Lisa” (1503) to Salvador Dali's complex relationship with Gala and her lovers?

Reading the book is like journeying back to the lives of artists from ancient to medieval, from classical period to postmodern era. It is a compendium of love stories and sinuous liaisons woven with romance, scandal, intrigue, betrayal and death of the creators and their models.

Ironically, in the local art scene, the author is discreet to explore the private relationships of Filipino artists and their models. Instead, he zeroed in on the development of nude art in the Philippines from 1930s through 1970s and from 1980s onwards.

The narrative account of the book is elegantly written, sensually provocative and, at times, indulging. The author, in a more personal approach, has deviated from his objective and straightforward narrative, which is characteristic of his previous books, by occasionally injecting his sentiment: a quasi-narrative of his thoughts and feelings in between paragraphs and chapters.

A TOYM awardee (Ten Outstanding Young Men) in 1973, Duldulao’s passion, as art writer and historian, seems to be inexhaustible after several decades of chronicling the Philippine art movements and activities.

As a self-made man, he is the only non-academe art historian who has extensively written more than 20 coffee-table books in the fields of arts and culture and has, recently, launched a scholarly reference book (volumes I & II) on the history and development of Philippine law and judicial system. His colossal achievement as author and writer is beyond compare among his contemporaries and the new generations of art writers.

Manny Duldulao, as a legendary name in the Philippine art circle, immerses himself within the communities of Filipino artists, known or unknown, and enlightens them to come out with their best creative outputs that are reflective of Philippine culture and environment. A founding director of Exhibition Center for Contemporary Art (ECCA), the author is also a collector, art patron for emerging artists, and a sought-after speaker and lecturer (Sillada, 2007).

Foreign Literature

“Do you think anyone ever buys a piece of junk like that?” says one police officer to the other standing in an art gallery. They are discussing a nude statue by Donatello. “Sure.” is the reply, “That’s art.” (Dialog from a scene near the end of the 1946 film noir classic, The Dark Corner.)

Flash forward seven years later to 1953. The nude photos of Bettie Page or Marilyn Monroe in Playboy magazine were what many considered as the “nude in art” – a perception in some circles that has continued for years. For those not familiar with the Aphrodite of Cnidus or The Discuss Thrower, their exposure to nudes (only in “girlie” magazines) would parallel that of commoners almost 200 years ago.

The invention of the camera revolutionized art and made nude images available to the masses. Previously, nudes had been available primarily only to society’s elite, in galleries.

It seems as though homo sapiens have been hard wired since the beginning with an obsession for the beauty of our own bodies. British art historian, Tim Marlow, hosts a four-part series, The Nude in Art, that will be released on DVD February 22, 2011. The series begins with the Classical period and progresses through the Renaissance and Enlightenment to the Modern era. Each episode is approximately forty minutes in length and features many of the world’s most famous works of nude and semi-nude art.

Along the way, Marlow is joined by art historians, Peter Webb (author of The Erotic Arts), Christopher Kelly (Cambridge) and David Waters (Men’s Health Magazine). They offer their opinions on nudes in art and the changing perception of the nude as cultures, societies, and values changed throughout history. They agree that nude artwork reflects the cultures from which it emerged.

The episode on the Classical period takes us back to what may have been the first nude sculpture and the story of the beginnings of art – over 25,000 years ago. Examples of Egyptian and Greek artwork are presented and discussed. 500 B.C. is pointed out as a “crucial moment in nude” art as the Greeks reflect male strength and military dominance with “The Discuss Thrower”. Then from 350 B.C. we meet the “most famous sculpture of the ancient world”, as Marlow says the piece that, “rocked the art world” – the Aphrodite of Cnidus, a clear precursor to the Venus de Milo. The female form contrasted the male strength and militaristic moods with visions of beauty and eroticism.

The episode on the Renaissance begins with the rise of Christianity and as Marlow says, “nudity became an expression of sin.” Marlow and company discuss the centering of man in art as God is moved aside. DaVinci’s “Vitruvian Man” illustrates the connection of man with the universe as an “almost divine representation of the circle and square, man in the middle, the measure of all things, naked.”

The Enlightenment points out how the church, monarchy, and the aristocracy used art (particularly nudes) as a weapon to reinforce their power. Then, the camera shifted attention to the debate over art vs. pornography as the series concludes with a look at contemporary nudes and their perceptions and acceptance in the Modern Era.
The Nude in Art with Tim Marlow is an informative and interesting introduction to masterpiece art as well as serious consideration of art’s “most enduring subject” (Etier, 2011).

CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Method of Research Used

This study made use of the descriptive research method. It is a descriptive analysis of the results of the given questionnaire to the chosen third year IARFA students from Far Eastern University.

Respondents of the Study

This study had for its subject 35 third year IARFA students from Far Eastern University.

Data Collection Method

To gather data from the respondents, the researchers made use of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was composed of five questions with two to three choices of answers.

Instruments Used

The researchers gathered data from the survey given to the respondents of this study and the researchers also made use of the internet.

Statistical Treatment

This study, being a descriptive research, made use of frequency tables and percentages for its statistical treatment. The formula is as follows:

P = R ____ x 100 T

Where: P = frequency percentage distribution R = frequency (number of responses) T = total number of student respondents
CHAPTER IV
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS, AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA This chapter presents the tables containing the data in the analysis and interpretation of said data.

Table 1.1

Nude Models as Perceived by the Respondents

Table 1.1 presents how the respondents find nude models. As an object of art: 88.57%. As an object of obscenity and profanity: 11.43%. Majority of the respondents find nude models as an object of art.

This suggests that majority of the respondents understand the beauty of nude art as only a few could see it as obscene.

Table 2.1

The Real Artistic Value of Fine Nude Art

Table 2.1 presents the perceptions of the respondents regarding the real artistic value of fine nude art. 34.29% of the respondents prefer that it accentuates values and feelings while 48.57% prefer that it is the right to expression. Only 17.14% of the respondents prefer that the real artistic value of fine nude art is that it creates social prejudices and principles.

The result suggests that majority of the respondents see the use of nude models as a way of expressing one’s feelings.

Table 3.1

Comfort Level Regarding Nude Model in Painting and Photography

Table 3.1 presents the comfort level of the students regarding nude model in painting and photography. The percentage for partial nudity (no frontal nudity) is 0%. Partial nudity (topless) is 8.57% and full nude is 91.43%. Majority of the respondents prefer full nude as their comfort level.

This suggests that most of the respondents are comfortable in seeing the models in full nude. Only a few prefer partial nudity. This suggests that some of the respondents are not yet comfortable seeing the models in full nude.

Table 4.1

How the Working in the Nude Art Segment Makes the Respondents Feel

Table 4.1 presents an analysis of how working in the nude art segment make the respondents feel. It arouses basic human instincts: 5.71%. It values beauty, perfection and pureness of the human body: 94.29%. Majority of the respondents feels that working in the nude art segment values beauty, perfection, and pureness of the human body.

The results suggests that most of the respondents could understand how nude art beautifies one’s perspective on art as most of the respondents feel that working in the nude segment values beauty, perfection, and pureness of the human body.

Table 5.1

How the Respondents Would Like to Expand Learning in Nude Painting and Photography

Table 5.1 presents the percentage of how the respondents would like to expand their learning in nude painting and photography. 37.14% of the respondents prefer fully immersing themselves in the craft of nude painting and photography. 11.43% of the respondents prefer attending nude art classes and workshops. While majority of the respondents with a percentage of 51.43% prefer progressing to longer exercises and perfect bodily shapes and proportions.

This suggests that majority of the respondents would want to progress to longer exercises and perfect bodily shapes and proportions as the respondents think that practicing would improve the respondents’ learning in nude painting and photography.

CHAPTER V
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary

As the researchers conducted this study, the objectives on this study were met. From the survey given to the respondents, the researchers were able to find out how the students perceive nude art, how the students react on the said subject and to know if they can be appreciative of the subject.

The researchers chose the third year fine arts students as respondents because they have been exposed to nude art since their first year in Far Eastern University. The researchers believe that the respondents already have enough exposure and understanding on the use of nude models in art and that the respondents can give sufficient information in this study.

Conclusions

Based on the survey conducted by the researchers, majority of the respondents find nude models as an object of art. Only a few view nude models as an object of obscenity and profanity. This suggests that most of the respondents are able to see the beauty of nude art without malice.

The researchers also therefore conclude that nude art makes the majority of the respondents value beauty, perfection and pureness of the body as the respondents consider it as aesthetics. The respondents also find that the right to expression is the real artistic value of nude art.

The researchers also found out that majority of the third year fine arts students prefer full nude as the comfort level regarding the use of nude models in art. This suggests that majority of the respondents are comfortable in seeing the naked human body.

The researchers also found out that majority of the respondents would prefer progressing to longer exercises and perfect bodily shapes and proportions in expanding their learning in nude art. This suggests that the respondents are able to understand the importance of having nude art in terms of photography, painting, and sculpture in their curriculum.

Recommendations

Based on the findings of this study, the researchers highly recommend fine arts students to appreciate nude art as the nude models are also objects of art. Some students see nude models as an object of obscenity and profanity. This suggests that there are students who cannot see the beauty of nude art. As a fine arts student, eyes and minds must be opened to the different forms of art and understand each form.

The researchers also recommend further research on this topic as to aid fine arts students in understanding art better.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Changing Depictions of Art Nudes. (2011). Retrieved September 15, 2011 from .

Different Roles of Male and Female Nudes. (2011). Retrieved September 15, 2011 from .

Styles of Fine Art Nudes. (2011). Retrieved September 15, 2011 from .

Etier, F. (2011). Nude in Art with Tim Marlow. February 21, 2011. Retrieved September 15, 2011 from .

Mittal, A. (2007). Nudity in art; a moot point. May 23, 2007. Retrieved September 15, 2011 from .

Sillada, D. (2007). A Compelling Journey with Manny Duldulao's Book on Nude Art & Artists. February 26, 2007. Retrieved September 15, 2011 from .