This episode explores images of the human body in ancient art. We travel from Mexico and Greece to Egypt and China, finishing in modern day New York, asking why human beings have always made art about themselves.

What were these images for? And what does a ‘realistic’ image of the body really tell us about the society that made it?

This program explores the place of the human body in politics and culture and in cultural representations of self, investigating the questions of how we have been taught to look.