ROME , Italy ( CNN ) -- When Anna Elisa Fattori arrives at work the first thing she does is to take off her clothes . All of them . For Fattori is a professional nude model working at Rome 's art academy . Anna Elisa Fattori : `` You are trying to give inspiration to the students . '' `` It is a tough job ! '' she tells me just before beginning to pose for a group of students , eager to paint her gracious figure . There is something striking about her bright green eyes and wavy red hair . `` It does n't seem to be hard , but you know , try it ! Put yourself in front of the mirror and then stay for a long time in a pose . You start : 'Oh my back , oh something is strange here ... ' '' she says , mimicking pain on her lower back . Fattori is one of about 300 people in Italy who do this job , but only about 50 of them have full-time contracts . She makes the equivalent of about $ 1,500 each month , but only works three months per year . And that is why she and others recently went on strike , demanding a full-time wage for work they say not everyone can do . `` It is not easy because you are naked , so you have to be very comfortable with your body and have a nice relationship with everybody , '' she says as the students look on , `` but not too open and not too close . You are trying to give inspiration to the students . If we lose these artistic roots that are very important to Italy then we lose a big part of our identity . '' Italian Renaissance art is filled with naked men and women : Think of Michelangelo 's David or Botticelli 's Venus . But back then artists mostly used prostitutes and lovers as models and muses , often with the complicity of priests who wanted the walls of their churches painted by famous names . `` Priests allowed prostitutes to use churches , '' explains Enrico Bruschini , one of Rome 's best known art historians . `` Officially it was to convert them , but the practical reason was to have the artist at the church . '' Bruschini says that the Saint Augustine church , a stone 's throw from Piazza Navona , was a famous gathering point in Rome for Renaissance artists looking for `` inspiration . '' Back then though professional modeling did not exist , and most would agree that the art did n't really suffer from its absence . So if Botticelli and Raphael could do without professional models , what is the big deal now ? `` It all started with the rise of art schools in the 19th and 20th centuries '' says Fattori . `` During the Renaissance you just thought that a prostitute can be a model or even a lover . But now we are here , so we need to move ahead . '' Art students hoping to become the next Michelangelo agree . `` I think a person should have talent , '' argues Anastasia Kurakina , a first year student from Russia . `` Because you , for example , you could n't [ model ] ... I do n't know you , but Anna Elisa has talent . '' Anastasia is right , I certainly could n't do it -- but unbeknownst to me she used me as a model while I was interviewing Fattori . Thankfully I was fully dressed , so all she drew was my head . And she did n't to a bad job at that . E-mail to a friend .
Italy 's art models have gone on strike , demanding they get a full-time wage . Around 300 people do the job , but only about 50 of them are full-time . During the Italian Renaissance artists mostly used prostitutes and lovers as models . Priests let prostitutes use churches so it was possible to attract , employ name artists .