Study of a Flayed Torso (verso)
1554
pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash over traces of black chalk; incised
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In the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland · as of July 2026
Discussion
FROM THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART’S CATALOG
In order to understand the movement of the human form, Michelangelo was known to have studied flayed bodies (cadavers with their skin removed) and in fact made several drawings of them. Bartolommeo da Arezzo—a follower of Michelangelo working a generation after the master—became obsessed with studying corpses, even stealing them from local graveyards. On one side of this sheet (verso), he drew a flayed torso.
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