Two Studies of a Flayed Man (recto)

1554

Bartolommeo da Arezzo

(Italian, active about 1550–80)

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Culture

Italy, 16th century

Medium

pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash over black chalk; incised (both figures) and pricked (left figure)

Support

Cream(3) laid paper (old perimeter mount still adhered to edges)

Measurements

Sheet: 40.5 x 27.6 cm (15 15/16 x 10 7/8 in.)

Credit Line

L. E. Holden Fund 1975.26.a

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Location

Not on view

Description

In order to understand the movement of the human form, Michelangelo was known to have studied flayed bodies (cadavers with their skin removed) and in fact made several drawings of them. Bartolommeo da Arezzo—a follower of Michelangelo working a generation after the master—became obsessed with studying corpses, even stealing them from local graveyards. On one side of this sheet (recto), he drew two views of the lower part of the same body, which is half flayed and shown hanging above the ground.