An écorché is a figure drawn, painted, or sculpted showing the muscles of the body without skin, normally as a figure study for another work or as an exercise for a student artist. The architect and Renaissance man Leon Battista Alberti recommended that when painters intend to depict a nude, they should first arrange the muscles and bones, then depict the overlying skin.
During the Renaissance in Italy, around 1450 to 1600, the renewed interest in classical Greek and Roman art styles led to the study of the human anatomy. Human dissection had been banned for many centuries due to the belief that body and soul were inseparable. It was not until the election of Pope Boniface VIII that the practice of dissection was permitted for medical observation.
Many painters and artists scrupulously documented and even performed dissections themselves. Among them were Leonardo da Vinci and Andreas Vesalius, two of the most influential artists in anatomical illustrations. Leonardo da Vinci, in particular, was so detailed in his studies that he was known as the “artist-anatomist” and the foremost pioneer of the depiction of anatomy. Leonardo’s anatomical studies contributed to artistic exploration of the movement of the muscles, joints and bones. His goal was to analyze and understand the instruments behind the postures and gestures in the human body.
Some of the first well known studies of this kind were performed by Leonardo da Vinci, who dissected cadavers and created detailed drawings of them. However, there are some accounts of this same practice taking place as far back as ancient Greece, though the specifics are not known.
Ligier Richier was a 16th-century religious sculptor working in Lorraine, France and known in particular for his depictions of scenes from the “Passion of Christ”. The various episodes of the Passion, between the arrest and the crucifixion of Christ, as recounted in the Gospels (Matthew 27, Luke 22, Mark 15, John 19), were increasingly subject to representation in the Arts towards the end of the Middle Ages, in tandem with the growing popularity of the staging of theatrical mystery plays.
Zozo061050 on
I love this. Really an interesting piece and even more so given it’s uniqueness during the time period it was made.
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An écorché is a figure drawn, painted, or sculpted showing the muscles of the body without skin, normally as a figure study for another work or as an exercise for a student artist. The architect and Renaissance man Leon Battista Alberti recommended that when painters intend to depict a nude, they should first arrange the muscles and bones, then depict the overlying skin.
During the Renaissance in Italy, around 1450 to 1600, the renewed interest in classical Greek and Roman art styles led to the study of the human anatomy. Human dissection had been banned for many centuries due to the belief that body and soul were inseparable. It was not until the election of Pope Boniface VIII that the practice of dissection was permitted for medical observation.
Many painters and artists scrupulously documented and even performed dissections themselves. Among them were Leonardo da Vinci and Andreas Vesalius, two of the most influential artists in anatomical illustrations. Leonardo da Vinci, in particular, was so detailed in his studies that he was known as the “artist-anatomist” and the foremost pioneer of the depiction of anatomy. Leonardo’s anatomical studies contributed to artistic exploration of the movement of the muscles, joints and bones. His goal was to analyze and understand the instruments behind the postures and gestures in the human body.
Some of the first well known studies of this kind were performed by Leonardo da Vinci, who dissected cadavers and created detailed drawings of them. However, there are some accounts of this same practice taking place as far back as ancient Greece, though the specifics are not known.
Ligier Richier was a 16th-century religious sculptor working in Lorraine, France and known in particular for his depictions of scenes from the “Passion of Christ”. The various episodes of the Passion, between the arrest and the crucifixion of Christ, as recounted in the Gospels (Matthew 27, Luke 22, Mark 15, John 19), were increasingly subject to representation in the Arts towards the end of the Middle Ages, in tandem with the growing popularity of the staging of theatrical mystery plays.
I love this. Really an interesting piece and even more so given it’s uniqueness during the time period it was made.