Anatomical Study

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Bronze sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Room 17

Inventory

PV 10822

Material and technique

Bronze, natural brown, clear patina, traces of black lacquer

Author

Willem Van Tetrode called Guglielmo Fiammingo (Delft, c. 1525 - Germany ? 1580)

Dating

1562-1567

Dimensions

43.5 x 14 x 24.5 cm.

Origin

Auriti Collection (1963)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

This small bronze is an anatomical study, a model often produced in workshops and academies to help artists and their pupils to learn to figure the human body. The mastery of the sculptor can be seen in the reflection of light from the muscles and in the dynamism of the figure, seemingly resting on a tree stump, but in fact possessed of a great centrifugal force. The bronze is not well known, but is identical to another more recognized statue held by the Hearn Family Trust in New York. The only difference between the two is the tree trunk, which is missing in the American version. Scholten recently dated the “flayed” figure to the five-year period between 1562 and 1567, at the end, that is, of van Tedrote’s Roman period and the beginning of his second spell in Florence. It would seem probable that it was created in this latter period, given the tradition of producing anatomical statues in Florence, though van Tedrote had already lived in the city prior to moving to Rome.

Pietro Cannata

Bibliography

L. Planiscig, La Collezione Giacinto Auriti, Vienna 1931, no. 53; A. Santangelo, Museo di Palazzo Venezia. La Collezione Auriti, Rome 1964, p. 33; P. Cannata, in S. Zuraw - M. G. Barberini - M. L. Casanova (eds.), Masterpieces of Renaissance and Baroque Sculpture from the Palazzo Venezia, Rome, exh. cat., Athens (Georgia) 1996, no. 20 pp. 78-79.