Black chalk.]]> This drawing and W44, both executed in light black chalk, represent the same antique torso seen from the front and rear. They almost certainly originate from the same side of one sheet. W44 has been so closely cut at the top that a little of the drawing itself has been lost. These drawings show clear pentimenti in the outer contours, Michelangelo's lightly drawing the chalk over the paper before thickening the chosen line. Within the forms Michelangelo uses both cross hatching and curves to convey a 'morbidezza magistrale' (de Tolnay) and a synthesis of a live model and an antique torso - in this latter respect it is interesting to note the considerable projection of the l. thigh in W43, and the elongation of the torso in relation to the upper body.

Two drawings of similar character equally in black chalk in the Casa Buonarroti, CB 41 F (de Tolnay 231) and CB 16F (de Tolnay 234) show the same torso in exact profile to the l. and r. and from a rear oblique angle, and surely derive from the same sheet as W43-4, Joannides (2002) considering CB 16 F to have adjoined Wilde 43, beneath it and at right angles to it. For Joannides the two BM fragments show a concern by Michelangelo for 'epidermis', CB 41 F for structure, 'with the view in left profile registered in a manner that deliberately undermines the idealism of the antique form'.

Wilde resolutely attributes W43 4 to Michelangelo, in contrast to the earlier hesitancy of Berenson and Thode. For Hirst (1988), W43 4 are 'slight drawings' which nevertheless 'reveal the instinctive response of the sculptor to a three dimensional object'. Wilde and de Tolnay consider a far earlier sheet at Chantilly, dated 1501-5 (de Tolnay 24) and in Michelangelo's characteristic pen and ink style, to represent the same antique torso. In fact the model for the Chantilly drawing is a statue formerly in the Sassi collection in Rome, see David Ekserdjian, 'Parmigianino and Michelangelo', "Master Drawings", XXXI, Winter 1993, pp.390-4. Wilde notes that the technique of W43 4 is consistent with Michelangelo's of the 1520s and that he may well have used such a torso as an exemplar for his first female nude sculpture: the full size clay model for the sculpted figure of 'Dawn' to be placed in the Sacrestia nuova (1524 or 1525). De Tolnay concurs. Wilde's description of the torso as being of the type of the 'Aphrodite of Cnidus' by Praxiteles is challenged by Otto Kurz (1953) but acknowledged by most subsequent scholars including Joannides (2002). To this group de Tolnay links a sheet in the Louvre (de Tolnay 230), equally representing a female nude, which he regards as deriving from the Capitoline Venus.

Dussler (1959) doubts whether the torso represented in the Chantilly drawing is the same as that seen in the BM and Casa Buonarroti sheets. He regards the Chantilly sheet as autograph but not those in the BM and Casa Buonarroti, judging the execution of line in the two BM sheets to be inexpressive and the surfaces to be represented with 'eine beschrankte Skala zeichnerischer Formeln'('a restricted range of graphic form').

Watermark: Star B: star in circle with cross: large (J. Roberts, 'A Dictionary of Michelangelo's Watermarks', Milan, p. 25).

Lit.: J. Wilde, 'Italian Drawings in the BM, Michelangelo and his Studio',London, 1953, no. 43, pp. 79-80 (with previous literature); O. Kurz, 'Michelangelo at the BM', 'The Burlington Magazine', XCV, 606, September 1953,p. 310; L. Dussler, 'Die Zeichnungen des Michelangelo', Berlin, 1959, no. 556, pp. 255-6 (as apocryphally attributed to Michelangelo); P. Barocchi, 'Michelangelo e la sua scuola: i disegni di Casa Buonarroti e degli Ufizzi', Florence, 1962, I, under no. 69 (= de Tolnay 234), pp. 91 2; C. de Tolnay, 'Sur des Venus dessines par Michel Ange, a propos de un dessin oublie du Musée du Louvre', "Gazette des Beaux Arts", 1967, p. 196, fig. 5; F. Hartt, 'The Drawings of Michelangelo', London, 1971, no. 241; J.A. Gere and N. Turner, in exhib. cat., London, BM, 'Drawings by Michelangelo', 1975, no. 95, p. 80; C. de Tolnay, 'Corpus dei disegni di Michelangelo', Novara, 1976, II, no. 232; M. Hirst, 'Michelangelo and his Drawings', New Haven and London, 1988, p. 61, fig. 112 3; P. Joannides, in exhib. cat. (F. Falletti and J. Katz Nelson eds), Florence, Galleria dell'Accademia, 'Venus e Amore', 2002, no. 4, pp. 150-1]]> Height: Height: 28 centimetres
Excavated/Findspot: Fayum, el- (historic)
Africa: Egypt: Fayum, el- (historic)]]> https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1882-1014-2]]> https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl020200814]]> https://wellcomecollection.org/works/bs5yny4e]]>
Text, vols. i-ii, and plates, vols. i-ii. The later have add. engr. titles 'Trattato completo dell'anatomia, etc.'
Copy 1 Vol. 1 Note: Text, v. 1.
Copy 1 Vol. 2 Note: Text, v. 2.
Copy 1 Vol. 3 Note: Plates, v. 1.
Copy 1 Vol. 4 Note: Plates, v. 2.]]> https://wellcomecollection.org/works/tfuxtmyt]]> 1 process print ; image 20.2 x 27.3 cm]]> https://wellcomecollection.org/works/rjvcw67x]]> https://wellcomecollection.org/works/yegvk95q
]]> 1 drawing : pencil, with gouache and wash]]> https://wellcomecollection.org/works/a6y7eg34]]> Lettering
La Lune. ... Portrait authentique de Sallot dit casque de fer. D'apres une photographie communiquée par M. Francal, notre correspondant à Foix. And. Gill. Relief Marchandeux.
Lettering note
The top of the newspaper contains several pieces of text

Sallot holds a pair of pincers up in his hands with a a tooth and leaning on a grossly oversized set of dentures through which a fleur-de-lis is growing, in the background is a oversized skull wearing a helmet.]]> https://wellcomecollection.org/works/rnyh7ukk]]>