No image in our culture invokes a more powerful taboo than the male nude. Yet this subject matter has held a central position in Western culture-from the idealized beauty of ancient Greek and Roman statues to the photography an pop media of today. With lavish illustrations and an incisive, witty text, Adam reveals a history of the male in art of every medium. This book shows how the heroic nude traversed the centuries from ancient Rome to the "peplum" movies of the 1950's; how a tamer, feminized male made his appearance in flirtatious paintings of the French rococo; how the Christian shame of nudity was solved in representations of the crucifixion or images of martyrdom; and how baroque artists exaggerated male characteristics to create supermales. Work of artists as diverse as Leonardo, Fragonard, Beardsley, Nadar, and Weber- and the historic contributions of men from David Bowie to Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Nuba warrior-combine to make Adam a fascinating and entertaining romp through the history of art and sexuality.

Includes index.