I am also a painter and attended Art College, which means, of course, painting nudes. That is far more challenging than landscapes, seascapes, or especially abstractions. And so, I know that Artists (especially in the Renaissance) would never miss an opportunity to portay a nude or semi-nude figure. This was not a spiritual thing, or even a prurient thing, but merely a way of showing off one’s “chops”, like a rock star taking an extended solo in the middle of a song. Sometimees the solo is warranted, but sometimes it is incongruous and out-of-place.
Don’t know,if I buy that totally, as the women are usually almost completely,clothed except for the one breast hanging out exposed, and there isn’t much painting genius going on In The near monotone breast usually.
The figures with draped cloths that expose most of,the body, ok I can see that, as theymusually,are very detailed, including translucent skin which shows the veins underneath the skin, indents, moles,or whatever, but you go back,through the paintings of the women, and the painting of one breast I don’t think is about showing their skill as painters, as there is nothing especially,skillful aboutmtheir,depiction in most cases, and is just a little more of the skin showing than normal. If however it is shown with various veins showing through, so,as,to,render skin and form skillfully, I can see the argument, but usually they aren’t depicted so skillfully
Just last night, while listening to Vintagee Vinyl, I heard a 12 minute version of “I Heard it Through The Grapevine” on CCR’s iconic album “Cosmos Factory”. It was a perfeect example of an unnecessary over-extended solo put into the song to show off the Artist’s Chops without adding anything to the song.
Another example is th Rare Earth recording of “Get Ready”, which shows off the amazing chops of the Bass Player, but goes on too long.
((((And I’m a Bass Player! LOL!))))
With all the work that goes into training, study, and practice, sometimes we artist just can’t help ourselves! :-)