Pinacoteca di Brera: the theme of the human form in the museum’s collection

The Pinacoteca di Brera (Brera Art Gallery) in Milan has an extensive and diverse collection of masterpieces. As you walk through its many rooms, you progress through artistic periods, techniques and expressions as well as stylistic movements. Each time you visit, you develop a new perspective and find a link between the works, a common thread that unifies objects of art across centuries. In this article, we will address the theme of the human form as an interpretative key as it is presented across paintings, statues and time periods. We will begin with the idols of Cycladic art, which peaked in the period between 2500 and 2000 B.C. In this period, the body was stylized in stone and the sculptor did not attempt  a refined or detailed portrayal, but allowed the essential outlines of the body to provide the power of suggestion. These figures were usually female nudes with their hands on their stomachs, most likely representations of the mother goddess, symbol of fertility and fecundity. Defying the effects...