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Human Figure, The

  • In: Encyclopedia of Identity
  • Edited by: Ronald L. Jackson II & Michael A. Hogg
  • Subject:Self & Identity, Identity, Self & Identity

The human figure has been the principal subject of Western art since the Renaissance. However, each appearance of a human figure in art and as a representation of metaphorical understandings of personal and sociocultural identity must therein be distinguished from the flesh-and-blood body it is intended to imitate. Representations of the human figure are part of a network of symbols in the visual arts and cultural studies, imitations of life through which we define and locate personal and public ...

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