The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Seated Male Nude

Seated Male Nude

c. 1516–1520
(Italian, 1493–1560)
Italy, 16th century
red chalk
Sheet: 40 x 23.7 cm (15 3/4 x 9 5/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1998.6
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Bandinelli's drawing of a moody nude combines his knowledge of ancient sculpture and paintings by Michelangelo with observation from life.

Description

Both Baccio Bandinelli and Michelangelo made figure drawing the foundation of their artistic and inventive processes. In this drawing, Bandinelli reimagined one of Michelangelo’s ignudi, the athletic male nudes that decorate the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Probably drawing from a live model, Bandinelli combined controlled, defined lines and smudges to create a massively muscled form, that, like Michelangelo’s figures, refers to ancient sculpture as well as to knowledge of anatomy. His use of red chalk—Michelangelo’s preferred medium for sketching the ignudi—suggests that he sought to compare his own prowess in the medium to that of the better-known master.
  • 1964
    Sotheby's, New York, 1 December 1964, lot 170 (as Rosso Fiorentino)
    with Hans Calmann, London, and W. H. Schab, New York
    1987
    Christie's, London, 8 December 1987, lot 72
    Private Collection, New York
    1998
    Sotheby's, New York, 28 January 1998, lot 69 (bought in)
    1998
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Ward, Roger. Baccio Bandinelli as a Draughtsman. Ph.D Dissertation, University of London, 1982. no. 265
    Ward, Roger, "Observations on the Red Chalk Figure Studies of Baccio Bandinelli: Two Examples in Melbourne," Art Bulletin of Victoria No. 23 (1982): pp. 19-37 pp. 32-36; illus. p. 31
    Cleveland Museum of Art, “Painting by 18th-century Italian Master Gaetano Gandolfi among Works Added to CMA Collection,” March 24, 1998, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    "Museum Acquisitions: Cleveland Acquires Bandinelli," Drawing 20 (Fall 1998). p. 26 (illus)
    DeGrazia, Diane and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned: cat. no. 7, p. 11, pp. 34-35, 284; Reproduced: p. 35
    Joannides, Paul, and Raphael. Raphael and His Age: Drawings from the Palais Des Beaux-Arts, Lille. [France]: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2002. p. 32, fig. 14
    Olszewski, Edward J., Burton L. Dunbar, and Robert Munman. A Corpus of Drawings in Midwestern Collections: Sixteenth-Century Italian Drawings. 2 Vols. London: Harvey Miller, 2008. vol. 1, no. 15, pp. 18-19
    Peters, Emily. “Master/Apprentice: Imitation and Inspiration in the Renaissance.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 59, no. 5 (September/October 2019): 8-9. Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 8.
  • Master/Apprentice: Imitation and Inspiration in the Renaissance. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 13, 2019-February 23, 2020).
    Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).
    Drawn to the Body: The Human Figure and the Graphic Arts, 1500-1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 14-May 23, 1999).
  • {{cite web|title=Seated Male Nude|url=false|author=Baccio Bandinelli|year=c. 1516–1520|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1998.6