Justin Bieber naked: would Michelangelo have approved?

The Instagram from Bora Bora that stopped the hearts of Beliebers worldwide has a grace and poise that evokes some of the great male nudes of art history

The nude, observed Kenneth Clark, the great art historian who wrote and presented the famous BBC television series Civilisation, is the one artistic genre that connects us directly with ancient Greece. “Even Picasso”, he noted with some amazement, refers back to classical archetypes of the nude. What would Clark have made of the selfie age, when we can all become nudes instantly? (For instance, John Legend here, in a picture posted by his wife on Wednesday.)

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