It’s the age old problem: what is it worth for somebody to take all their clothes off? In Rome, they are wrestling with this problem as nude models for art students are on strike. Both male and female models have been walking the picket line for higher wages. Although there are 1500 models in Rome only 50 have full time contracts.
"It is not easy because you are naked, so you have to be very comfortable with your body and have a nice relationship with everybody," she says as the students look on, "but not too open and not too close. You are trying to give inspiration to the students. If we lose these artistic roots that are very important to Italy then we lose a big part of our identity."
Italian Renaissance art is filled with naked men and women: Think of Michelangelo's David or Botticelli's Venus. But back then artists mostly used prostitutes and lovers as models and muses, often with the complicity of priests who wanted the walls of their churches painted by famous names.
(edition.cnn)
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