Naked ambition: when the Greeks first stripped off

We are so used to nude statues their strangeness escapes us. Was this exposure of the body to do with sex, athletics, war or virtue? James Davidson visits Defining Beauty, the stunning new exhibition of the body in Greek artThe oddity of ancient sculpture often escapes us. A male nude, a Greek statue, has become very familiar over the past 2,500 years: it is what we expect of ancient statuary, that it show off its muscles. At times it can seem overly familiar, a bit tacky or tawdry or maybe just