Lynda Nead joined the Department of History of Art at Birkbeck in 1986 and was appointed to the Pevsner Chair of History of Art in 2004. Before coming to Birkbeck, she taught History of Art at the University of Leicester and the University of Kent. She has also been a Visiting Professor at Gresham College, London and Moore Distinguished Professor, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology. She was elected a Member of the Academia Europaea in 2013 (MAE); a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2017 (FRHistS); and a Fellow of the British Academy in 2018 (FBA).

Preface to the Routledge Classics Edition List of Images Introduction Part 1: Theorizing the Female Nude 1. Framing the Female Body 2. A Discourse on the Naked and the Nude 3. A Study of Ideal Art 4. Aesthetics and the Female Nude 5. Obscenity and the Sublime Part 2: Redrawing the Lines 6. 'The Damaged Venus' 7. The Framework of Tradition 8. The Lessons of the Life Class 9. Art Criticism and Sexual Metaphor 10. Breaking Open the Boundaries 11. Redrawing the Lines Part 3: Cultural Distinctions 12. Sacred Frontiers 13. Pure and Motivated Pleasure 14. Policing the Boundaries 15. Displaying the Female Body 16. Erotic Art: A Frame for Desire. Bibliography Index