Study of a Leg

Author: Rosie Razzall

This previously unpublished drawing depicts a study of a leg seen from below in black chalk on the recto, with a few lines nearby to indicate the study of a head. On the verso of the sheet are three standing nude figures: a saint with a crucifix in his left hand, and at a smaller scale a male figure with hands clasped, perhaps in the pose of a Baptism of Christ, and a female nude. These figures have been drawn first in black chalk, and then reinforced in pen and ink in hatching around the contours.

The drawing was acquired by Franz Koenigs as ‘school of Michelangelo’, an attribution based on the leg study on the recto rather than the figures on the verso. Michelangelo prepared limb studies in chalk or pen and ink for his fresco of The Battle of Cascina and other projects, for example a drawing of arms and shoulders in Vienna. It is probably a working sheet by one of his many followers whose identity is impossible to determine. At some point in the drawing’s history, the three figures on the verso were preferred, as the sheet was trimmed carefully to accommodate the feet of the saint at far left. The tight hatching around the figures also recalls Michelangelo’s widely imitated early penwork, but these figures have not been related to any project, and they may be of a later date.