Established as a pictorial genre in its own right during the Renaissance, the female nude became one of the most important subjects in European painting. Under pretexts both mythological (Titian’s “Venus of Urbino”) and biblical (Rembrandt’s “Bathsheba at her Bath”) or Oriental (Ingres’“Great Odalisque”), the female body was unveiled. These pretexts vanish with Manet’s “Olympia”, a simple portrayal of a contemporary woman naked, which resulted in scandal. Enjoy your visit!