Karl Philipp Moritz and the Nude Body

In his paper on aesthetic autonomy with the title “Signature of Beauty”, Karl Philipp Moritz (1756-1793) included the following statement: “Nudity by itself, which uncovers any deficiency and disfigures every other animal, is for human beings the ultimate mark of perfection with regard to their beauty. The shame of bareness is to be overcome by the knowledge that there is no other gem but beauty’s own existence.” For many centuries the naked body could only be depicted in art as either a mythological figure or a Christian martyr, but following Moritz’s concept of autonomous beauty, such attributes are to be given up, because beauty exists for its own sake without regard of any potential utility or purpose. Moritz claims that the beauty of the human body is the most touching one and thus should not be covered up so that “the treasure of perfection” becomes invisible. The nudity of the body makes the inner beauty of a person more transparent and displays its essential features. Furthermore, nudity paves the way to self-analysis and introspection, a topic which he also cherished in his psychological journal “Gnothi sautón oder Magazin zur Erfahrungsseelenkunde”. Diversity is another important theme of this journal. It is based on the conviction that nature does not appear everywhere with the same forms and one should not seek to correct it. Any moral judgment of right or wrong seems to be out of place. This applies also to relations between men which seem perfectly acceptable, since gender distinction is not essential for the process of self-observation, but certainly has implications for the nude body.