This book analyses, from six standpoints, the different ways in which artists have represented the male nude body from modernity to the present day.

A hundred and seventy-two works of art created in various techniques and belonging to collections from all over the world engage in a dialogue that originates in modern eighteenth-century Europe, when the canon of classical antiquity was revived and identity between moral virtue and strength was assessed to define the heroic man.

The breaking of the conventions of academic representation, coupled with the decline of other values in visual arts, opened the possibility to discover other facets of the male nude. From manly strength to the most human pain, this book aims to show the reader both the ancient expression and its contemporary manifestations.