The Nude as self portrait.

"Every artist is a narcissist returning to work continually on his own self portrait, even when he is painting the nude.  The gestalt of the creator is woven into the formal elements of painting, every graphic work, every sculpture"

France Borel observes "The artwork feeds on the artists longing, on his passion for the other for the model, the nude before him and on his narcissistic passion for himself.  The creative act is profoundly erotic in nature."

"They are a kind of fetish operating simultaneously for as sexual substitutes and as a vehicle for erotic projection"

Taken from "erotic art" by angelika muthesius and giles neret