The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 8, 2023

Rib Cages

early 1540s

Battista Franco

(Italian, c. 1510–1561)

Italy, 16th century

Pen and brown ink

Support: Beige(1) laid paper, laid down on cream(3) laid(?) paper

Sheet: 11.6 x 23.8 cm (4 9/16 x 9 3/8 in.); Secondary Support: 11.6 x 23.8 cm (4 9/16 x 9 3/8 in.)

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Claude Cassirer 1964.383

Location

not on view

Description

Michelangelo was among the first artists in Europe to attend a human dissection and to adopt anatomical knowledge as a necessity for depicting the human figure. These drawings by Battista Franco reflect the increased—and slightly macabre—interest in the interior workings of the human body inspired in part by Michelangelo’s example. Here, the groupings of rib cages, though rendered accurately, are placed into decorative piles. The odd assembly vacillates between scientific study and a symbolic memento mori, or reminder of death.

Provenance
Sir Thomas Lawrence, London (Lugt 2445, lower left, blind stamped). Samuel Woodburn, London (according to departmental cataloguing sheet, sale 4-8 June 1860, Christie's London; Lugt 2584, not stamped). Boguslaw Jolles, Dresden and Vienna (Lugt 381a, lower left, in blue ink; according to departmental cataloguing sheet, sale 28-31 October 1895, Munich). Prof. Otto Neubauer, Munich and London (according to departmental card). Mr. and Mrs. Claude Cassirer, Cleveland
Exhibition history

CMA, The Draftsman's Eye: Late Italian Renaissance Schools and Styles (Mar. 6-Apr. 22, 1979), no. 49, illus., pp. 16, 23, 59.

CMA, Ars Medica (Aug. 3-Dec. 12, 1965).

CMA, "Year in Review for 1964" (Dec. 8, 1964-Feb. 17, 1965), cma Bulletin 51 (1964), p. 265 no. 115, illus. p. 241.

Year in Review (1964). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 1964-January 31, 1965).

The Draftsman's Eye: Late Italian Renaissance Schools and Styles. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 6-April 22, 1979).

Drawings: Discoveries in the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 7-October 28, 1990).

Master/Apprentice: Imitation and Inspiration in the Renaissance. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 13, 2019-February 23, 2020).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1964.383