Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011375Arm Bones
About the Artwork
Michelangelo was among the first artists in Europe to attend a human dissection and to adopt anatomical knowledge as a necessity for depicting the human figure. These drawings by Battista Franco reflect the increased—and slightly macabre—interest in the interior workings of the human body inspired in part by Michelangelo’s example. Here, the groupings of arm bones, though rendered accurately, are placed into decorative piles. The odd assembly vacillates between scientific study and a symbolic memento mori, or reminder of death.
Inscriptions
VERSO OF SECONDARY SUPPORT, lower left, in graphite: 2.
Provenance
Sir Thomas Lawrence, London (Lugt 2445, lower left, blind stamped). Samuel Woodburn, London (according to departmental cataloguing sheet, sale 4-8 June 1860, Christie's London; Lugt 2584, not stamped). Boguslaw Jolles, Dresden and Vienna (Lugt 381a, lower left, in blue ink; according to departmental cataloguing sheet, sale 28-31 October 1895, Munich). Prof. Otto Neubauer, Munich and London (according to departmental card). Mr. and Mrs. Claude Cassirer, Cleveland
Exhibition history
Year in Review (1964). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 1964-January 31, 1965). Drawings: Discoveries in the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 7-October 28, 1990). Master/Apprentice: Imitation and Inspiration in the Renaissance. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 13, 2019-February 23, 2020).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Battista Franco (Italian, c. 1510–1561)
- Date
- early 1540s
- Medium
- pen and brown ink with incised lines
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 11.8 x 36.7 cm (4 5/8 x 14 7/16 in.); Secondary Support: 11.8 x 36.7 cm (4 5/8 x 14 7/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Claude Cassirer
- Accession no.
- 1964.379
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Open-access museum record · AT-00011375
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