Artist: Leonardo Da Vinci
Date: 1504
Size: 27 x 16 cm
Museum: Royal Collection (London, United Kingdom)
Technique: Drawing
A study of a nude man standing with his legs apart, seen from behind. In 1503 Leonardo began preparations for the huge mural of the Battle of Anghiari, to be painted in the council chamber of the Palazzo della Signoria in Florence. His preparatory drawings for the composition, of men and horses in violent action, led Leonardo back to a prolonged study of anatomy and proportion, a subject that had first occupied him around 1490 in Milan. Leonardo made a number of drawings of male nudes standing, seen directly from in front or behind, and of legs from all angles with the muscles strongly emphasised. These nude studies were not directly preparatory for the Battle, but background research on the human form, almost in the manner of a systematic survey of the body, in the manner of a series of architectural elevations. Here the model spreads his legs equally to balance his weight distribution, and in other drawings from the same series he supported his arms by holding sticks so as to put no strain on the shoulder muscles. While it was important for expressive purposes to know how to draw the muscles in tension, it was just as important to know how to draw them when relaxed. Leonardo stated in a note of the same period – perhaps with a sideswipe at contemporaries such as Luca Signorelli:
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