The depiction of the male nude form 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.

“Renaissance” is the French equivalent of the Italian word “rinascita” which means rebirth. It is that period, beginning in Italy, in which culture and civilization self-consciously sought to return to the values of the Classical World. It was a repudiation of what was seen as the barbarism which had swept over Europe since the fall of Rome a thousand years before.

The Renaissance began when Boccaccio described contemporary 14th century efforts to return to the Classical Age through styles in poetry. In 1550 the art historian Visari coined the term in application to all the cultural efforts to revive the culture of the Ancients. Voltaire, Michelet and Burckhardt further popularized the idea that the Renaissance was a watershed ending the Middle Ages and initiating the Modern Age.

There was an expolosion in representation of male nude art. This was begun by Donatello and was followed dramatically by Leonardo da Vinci. Michelangelo, the master of the High Renaissance, gloried in the depiction of nude men, and his near contemporary Il Sodoma followed as closely as he could against growing ecclesiastical opposition. Baccio Bandinelli continued the work as did Benevenuto Cellini and Agnolo Bronzino. El Greco continued the tradition, primarily in Spain though he was a native of Crete which had fallen to the Turks.