Anatomical Man (Ecorché) c. 1600

bronze, sculpture

website interface

natural shape and form

negative space

sculpture

bronze

sculptural image

male figure

unrealistic statue

sculpting

sculpture

strong shape

italy

natural form

"Anatomical Man (Ecorché)" is a bronze sculpture created by an anonymous artist around 1600. The sculpture is a small-scale model of a male figure, depicting the human anatomy in meticulous detail. This type of anatomical model, known as an "ecorché," was used by artists to study the structure and movement of the human body. The "Anatomical Man (Ecorché)" is an example of the high level of anatomical realism achieved by artists of the Renaissance period. It is currently part of the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

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minneapolisinstituteofart about 1 year ago

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Through its active stance, this ecorché (literally, a "flayed" figure) becomes a living cadaver. The pose, drawn from classical statuary, provides an excellent opportunity to display the muscles in action, notably seen here in the differing tensions and movements of the shoulder, neck, and thigh muscles. The ecorché demonstrates the practice of anatomical representation that arose during the Renaissance from an interest in the human body and its functions. Illustrated anatomy books, and particularly Vesalius' Fabrica, published in 1543, established the activated flayed corpse as the dominant type of anatomical representation. It remained so until the Borghese Gladiator was discovered around 1610 (see the full-scale cast in this gallery). This provided a new model for the study of muscular anatomy as an intact, healthy body.