Artwork Page for Crucified Man

Details / Information for Crucified Man

Crucified Man

1550

Melchior Lorck

(Danish, 1526/27–after 1588)

after Michelangelo Buonarroti

(Italian, 1475–1564)
Culture
Germany
Medium
engraving
Credit Line
Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr. 1923.264
Catalogue raisonné
Hollstein XXII.186.11
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

In this print Danish artist Melchior Lorck isolated the figure of the Old Testament villain Haman from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling. Lorck may have seen it in person, or in a print or drawing. He rendered the musculature and outline carefully, but less successful were his grasp of the figure’s foreshortening (the rendering of a figure in perspective), and the proportions of the body in relation to the head. Artists working outside Italy around 1550 still did not generally sketch from live models, nor did they directly study anatomy, which may explain Lorck’s awkward reconciliation of the form.
A vertically oriented engraving in black ink depicts a nude, muscular man with a light skin tone, center, crucified against a thick tree trunk. His torso twists toward our right as his head turns over his shoulder. Billowing drapery hangs behind him. A monogram in the upper left features the date 1550 and letters I, M, and F. Dense horizontal lines form the background, and tall grass emerges from the bottom right.

Crucified Man

1550

Melchior Lorck, Michelangelo Buonarroti

(Danish, 1526/27–after 1588), (Italian, 1475–1564)
Germany

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