The Nude A Study of Ideal Art by Kenneth Clark 'The nude', says the Author in the first chapter of this remarkable book, gains its enduring value from the fact that it reconciles several contrary states. It takes the most sensual and immediately interesting object, the human body, and puts it out of reach of time and desire; it takes the most purely rational concept of which mankind is capable, mathematical order, and makes it a delight to the senses; and it takes the vague fears of the unknown and sweetens them by showing that the gods are like men, and may be worshipped for their life-giving beauty rather than their death-dealing powers." In his historical development of this theme he shows how the Greeks used the nude to embody their ideas about certain fundamental human needs: the need for harmony and order (Apollo), the need to sublimate desire (Venus), the need to live more intensely through imaginative participation in energy or to purge the soul through the contemplation of su