No early culture celebrated nude men more than the Ancient Greeks. Beginning in the Fifth Century Before the Common Era (BCE), Greeks began portraying heroes and athletes as nudes. Among the Greeks we have the named artists of Lysippos, Myron and Naukydes. There were also many anonymous Greek artists whose names we have lost, including the Diver Artist. The Greeks and later the Romans progressed and reached a pinnacle in these depictions.

With the collapse of Classical Civilization in the Fifth Century of the Common Era, this thousand year period came to an end in Western Europe. Therefore, no culture celebrated less the beauty of the male nude than the European periods of the Middle Ages and the Gothic Era.

Modern male nude art tremendously exploded as Europe came out of the Gothic Period and into the Renaissance. At times the Church tried to prohibit depictions of male nudes, but the artists who were largely patronized by the princes of the Church were able to thwart these attempts through depicting Biblical figures and mythological figures in the nude. One of the pivotal points beginning this explosion was the discovery in 1511 of the Apollo Belvedere. This Roman copy of a Greek original amazed its discovers with the detail and obvious pride which was taken in the nude male form, as did the works of many anonymous Roman artists as they too were rediscovered.