Sensuous, voluptuous, provocative - the female form has inspired artists for centuries, making it perhaps the most popular subject in the history of painting. Since Giogione's "Sleeping Venus", the first notable female nude in Western painting, artists have focused on the infinite possibilities of the representation of the female body. Featuring full-page illustrations of masterpieces of the genre - from Titian's "Venus of Urbino" to Manet's "Olympia", from Invres' "Large Odalisque" to Lucian Freud's "Naked Girl" - this volume provides a tour of Western society's ever-changing visions of beauty and repose.