The Nude Uncovered - BBC2

(Image credit: BBC/Lion TV/Helena Hunt)

In The Nude Uncovered, Mary Beard concludes her examination of nudity in art with a look at how artists both reinforce and challenge ideas about beauty

The concluding episode of Mary Beard's The Nude Uncovered sees Mary examining how art reinforces and challenges society's ideas about beauty (Monday, 9pm, see our TV Guide for full details).

In 2005 the artist Marc Quinn installed his sculpture Alison Lapper Pregnant on the fourth plinth of Trafalgar Square.

Mary with Gus Casely-Hayford at the Horniman Museum, London

Mary asks how the statue of nude and eight-months pregnant disabled artist Alison was viewed and how it challenged traditional ideas about classical sculpture.

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She also looks at the work of Viennese artist Egon Schiele, famous for his angular, twisted nude studies (often of himself).

Also in Mary's spotlight are the meaty portraits of Lucian Freud and the controversial series of pictures of adolescent girls by American photographer Sally Mann.

TV Times rating: ***