"Given the centrality of the male and female nude in the teaching and scholarship of Renaissance art, it is about time this book appeared. Burke (Univ. of Edinburgh, UK) makes a major contribution to the literature by presenting the nuanced reactions, in both textual and visual form, of viewers of the nude between about 1400 and 1530 in the Italian peninsula."--A. Golahny, Choice Selected for Choice's 2019 Outstanding Academic Titles List "If you thought you knew what you were looking at when looking at Renaissance nudes, look again with Jill Burke."--Alexander Nagel, Professor of Fine Arts, New York University "The question of 'Why the Renaissance nude?' is so central to the very idea of Renaissance art - and at the same time so fascinating - that it is incomprehensible that it evaded treatment in book form until now. In The Italian Renaissance Nude , Jill Burke sets aside art history's unexamined assumptions and casts a fresh eye on artworks we thought we knew, all the while carefully reading ancient, medieval and Renaissance texts to glean important historical insights."--Rebecca Zorach, Mary Jane Crowe Professor of Art History, Northwestern University.