The top 10 male nudes in art

From Michelangelo's marble Christ to the sculpted torsos of Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs, artists have reflected for centuries on the raw beauty and tragedy of the male body
From:  The Guardian

Caravaggio 

Victorious Cupid 

1601-1602

The full-frontal menace of Caravaggio's boldest painting creates one of art's most unsettling encounters. Cupid is a real youth, modeled, it was said in the 17th century, after his own boyfriend "that lay with him". He poses as the god of love, wearing fake wings, grinning insouciantly at the embarrassed onlooker as the painting's severe light leads all eyes to his nudity. Is this what it felt like to be a cardinal eyeing up the trade in baroque Rome? Caravaggio's anarchistic tribute to the destructive power of desire – the stuff of civilization lies defeated at Cupid's feet – is eternally worrying.