We have a large painting hanging in our living room. It’s about eight feet long by five feet high. There are many elements in the painting, but one of them is a nude woman, painted in a romance period style. We’ve had the painting for as long as we’ve owned the house, and our children were born into that house and grew up seeing that painting every day.
I don’t remember what age they were when they finally noticed there was a nude in the picture, but their questions were fairly innocuous, and they seemed to accept them, and quickly move onto a more general discussion of the painting.
Many guests will also discuss the painting, but no one has ever expressed shock or discomfort that there is a nude in it. If they feel that, they keep it to themselves. Most people seem more interested in the overall theme of the painting. Another element of the painting is a satyr hanging upside down by a rope from a tree, as if a deer that had been shot and hung up to keep away from predators. The satyr is bleeding into a stream below. It is an element of the picture that is hidden in shadows, and people usually don’t see it at first, but when they do, that generally becomes the focus of conversation. All in all, I’d say that violence and fantasy are much more shocking than nudity.