Study of a Standing Male Nude Seen from Behind

Author: Klazina Botke

The naked body of the standing man is rendered with sharply defined outlines, while the softer modelling of the skin and the underlying muscles give the body convincing volume and shape. The muscular figure is pictured in an intriguing position and set off against the background with hatching in such a way that he seems to be standing at a rock face. We see him from behind, with his arms raised and his left foot placed on a ledge of some kind. Regrettably, the drawing has been cut off at the top and bottom, so it is not clear what the man is doing: are his hands tied to something, is he holding on, pulling down or climbing up? It is striking that his gaze is not directed upwards and his pose is relaxed. It is possible that the drawing is a stand-alone anatomy study of a life model, placed in this curious position in order to practise the musculature or explore possible poses, without the artist having had a specific figure in a larger composition in mind.

According to the old inscriptions, the drawing has been attributed to, among others, Andrea del Sarto (1486-1530), his pupil Pontormo (1494-1557) and Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572). Later, Bronzino’s successor, Alessandro Allori (1535-1607) was also proposed.^[1] What these old attributions have in common is that they assume that the study was done in Florence in the sixteenth century. Oberhuber, by contrast, suggested an artist from Rome in the circle of Cavaliere d'Arpino (1568-1640), by whom there are several somewhat similar figure studies in red chalk.^[2] Chapman pointed to the Rubens-like appearance, while Ferrau Fenzoni (1562-1640) of Faenza has also been cautiously suggested.^[3] Given the lack of a convincing attribution, the sheet is for the time being classified as a workshop study dating from around 1600.^[4]