Collection Online as of March 28, 2023

Study of a Flayed Torso (verso)

1554

Part of a set. See all set records

Bartolommeo da Arezzo

(Italian, active about 1550–80)

Italy, 16th century

Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash over traces of black chalk; incised

Support: Cream(3) laid paper

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

L. E. Holden Fund 1975.26.b

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 (verso), he drew a flayed torso.

Inscriptions

Inscription

signed, lower right, in brown ink: demano de bar / tolomeo aretino / 1554 ; by artist(?), upper right, in brown ink: [5?] [over- and underlined] ; by artist(?), lower left, in brown ink: N° 9 ; by artist(?), lower right, in brown ink: [N. 15?]

Citations

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: P. 9; Mentioned: P. 8.

Exhibition history

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