page_title: Depictions of nudity
section_title: Depictions of youth
hierarchical_section_title: Depictions of nudity / Nudity in art / Depictions of youth
caption_attribution_description: Exhibit in the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA. This artwork is in the public domain because the artist died more than 70 years ago. Photography was permitted in the museum without restriction.
context_page_description: Depictions of nudity include visual representations of nudity throughout history, in disciplines including the arts and sciences. Nudity is restricted in most societies, but some depictions of nudity may serve a recognized social function. Clothing also serves as a significant part of interpersonal communication, and a lack of clothing in public is expected to have a social context. In Western societies, the three contexts that are easily recognized by a majority of individuals are art, pornography, and information or science. Any image not easily fitting into one of these categories may be misinterpreted, leading to disputes.
context_section_description: Amor, or Cupid, was often depicted as a baby with wings. Cupid is winged because lovers are flighty and likely to change their minds, and like a small child because love is foolish and irrational. His symbols are the arrow and torch, "because love wounds and inflames the heart." These attributes and their interpretation were established by late antiquity. Although Eros appears in Classical Greek art as a slender winged youth, during the Hellenistic period he was increasingly portrayed as a chubby boy. In art, Cupid often appears in multiples as the Amores, or amorini in the later terminology of art history, the equivalent of the Greek erotes. Cupids are a frequent motif of both Roman art and later Western art of the classical tradition. In the 15th century, the iconography of Cupid starts to become indistinguishable from the putto.
  Cupid continued to be a popular figure in the Middle Ages, when under Christian influence he often had a dual nature as Heavenly and Earthly love. In the Renaissance, a renewed interest in classical philosophy endowed him with complex allegorical meanings. Raphael, for example, made paintings of nude putti, sometimes incorrectly identified as cherubim. Another famous example is Amor Vincit Omnia by Caravaggio. In contemporary popular culture, Cupid is shown drawing his bow to inspire romantic love, often as an icon of Valentine's Day.
  In Greek mythology, Hebe is the goddess of youth, always depicted as a young girl. In Roman mythology her equivalent is Juventas. She is the daughter of Zeus and Hera. Hebe was the cupbearer for the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus, serving their nectar and ambrosia. She was also worshipped as a goddess of pardons or forgiveness; freed prisoners would hang their chains in the sacred grove of her sanctuary at Phlius. In art, Hebe is usually depicted wearing a sleeveless dress. The figure of Hebe was popular in the 19th century and early 20th century for garden fountains and temperance fountains, and was widely available in cast stone.
  In Roman mythology, Flora is the goddess of flowers and the spring, always depicted as a young woman. While she was a comparatively insignificant figure in Roman mythology, being one among several fertility goddesses, her association with springtime gave her greater prominence with the revival of Antiquity among Renaissance humanists than she had ever enjoyed in ancient Rome. Her festival, the Floralia, was held between April 28 and May 3 and symbolized the renewal of the cycle of life, drinking, and flowers. Her Greek equivalent is Chloris, a nymph. The nymphs are generally regarded as divine spirits who animate nature, and are usually depicted as beautiful, young nubile maidens who love to dance and sing. They are believed to dwell in mountains and groves, by springs and rivers, and also in trees and in valleys and cool grottoes. Although they would never die of old age or illness and could give birth to fully immortal children if mated to a god, they themselves were not necessarily immortal. As such, they could be beholden to death in various forms.
  Other nymphs, always in the shape of young maidens, were part of the retinue of a god, such as Dionysus, Hermes, or Pan, or a goddess, generally the huntress Artemis. They are frequently associated with the huntress Artemis; the beautiful Apollo; and the god of wine, Dionysus.
  The story of Cupid and Psyche, depicted as young lovers, is an allegory of immortal love. Immortality is granted to the soul of Psyche as a reward for commitment to sexual love. In late antiquity, Martianus Capella transformed the story into an allegory of the fall of the human soul.
  In the Gnostic text On the Origin of the World, the first rose is created from the blood of Psyche when she loses her virginity to Cupid.
caption: Hebe and the Eagle of Jupiter by François Rude, 1852
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