These drawings of the human leg are by the artist Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), whose studies of anatomy are recorded by his earliest biographers, Vasari (1550) and Condivi (1553). Michelangelo reportedly first dissected a cadaver in Florence around 1495, after he had been commissioned to sculpt a crucifix of wood for the church of Santo Spirito. The prior of the church gave him rooms in which he could, by dissection, learn how to render convincingly the muscles of the dying Christ. His last witnessed dissection occurred in Rome in 1548. Such studies were particularly apt for his typical subject matter, the muscular male nude in contorted action. The drawing on the left is a front or anterior view of the left thigh and leg, in which each of the major muscles is carefully drawn in outline and then hatched diagonally to emphasize their shapes. The swelling and tapering shape of the muscles is clearly delineated by the draftsman, as is the compact way in which the muscles interweave with each other. The drawing on the right is a side view of the same structure after the muscles have been cut away from the front of the limb. This work was presented to the Wellcome Library in 1980, in memory of Dr. Robert Heller and Mrs. Anne Heller.
Human anatomy - History., Catalogue search
Drawing by michelangelo hi-res stock photography and images - Alamy
Category:Drawings by Michelangelo Buonarroti - Wikimedia Commons
Between 1515 and 1520 hi-res stock photography and images - Alamy
117 Red Chalk Drawings Image: PICRYL - Public Domain Media Search
Michelangelo buonarroti drawing hi-res stock photography and
117 Red Chalk Drawings Image: PICRYL - Public Domain Media Search
Left michelangelo hi-res stock photography and images - Alamy
117 Red Chalk Drawings Image: PICRYL - Public Domain Media Search
117 Red Chalk Drawings Image: PICRYL - Public Domain Media Search
FMIB 47896 Fig1--Leftsecond periopod from anterior or upper side
Michelangelo - Drawing of left leg and 15 lines of verse, mssHM