The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 24, 2025
Two Studies of a Flayed Man (recto)
1554
(Italian, active about 1550–80)
Sheet: 40.5 x 27.6 cm (15 15/16 x 10 7/8 in.)
L. E. Holden Fund 1975.26.a
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.- Master/Apprentice: Imitation and Inspiration in the Renaissance. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 13, 2019-February 23, 2020).CMA, The Draftsman's Eye: Late Italian Renaissance Schools and Styles (Mar. 6-Apr. 22, 1979), no. 66, illus. pp. 10, 23, 35, 54.CMA, "Year in Review for 1975" (Feb. 3-Mar. 7, 1976), cma Bulletin 63 (1976), p. 69 no. 119.
- {{cite web|title=Two Studies of a Flayed Man (recto)|url=false|author=Bartolommeo da Arezzo|year=1554|access-date=24 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1975.26.a