The Birth of the Ideal

S1, E1: Hannah's tour through the history of the nude in art starts in Ancient Greece, where the male body was considered the only body worthy of representation. Episode One ""Birth Of The Ideal"" reveals that the glorification of masculine strength, invulnerability and rock hard abs all started back in the toga era. The depiction of the vulnerable, passive or coy female Cast evolved a little later, and Hannah follows the evolution of the nude, right up til the end of the nineteenth century.