From Ancient Venuses to Playboy

Before there was Playboy magazine, there was the Aphrodite of Knidos and the Medici Venus.

All three were made by men, depicted women’s naked bodies, and became objects of fervent interest. But what actually separates the ancient Venus statues from a Playboy centerfold, besides 2,300 years?

In 4th century BC, the Athenian sculptor Praxiteles did something radical: He produced the first large-scale, freestanding, life-size nude female figure in Greek sculpture. The pose of his Aphrodite of Knidos became one of the most influential in Western art: a nude female figure who attempts to cover herself when surprised at her bath.