An ''écorché'' () is a figure drawn, painted, or sculpted showing the muscles of the body without skin, normally as a figure study for another work or as an exercise for a student artist. The

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and

Renaissance man A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, ...

Leon Battista Alberti Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, Catholic priest, priest, linguistics, linguist, philosopher, and cryptography, cryptographer; he epitomised the natu ...

recommended that when painters intend to depict a

nude Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. While estimates vary, for the first 90,000 years of pre-history, anatomically modern humans were naked, having lost their body hair, living in hospitable climates, and no ...

, they should first arrange the muscles and bones, then depict the overlying skin.Écorché
defined at ArtLex.com Willem van den Broecke - Anatomical study

Willem van den Broecke - Anatomical study

Some of the first well known studies of this kind were performed by

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...

, who dissected

cadavers A cadaver, often known as a corpse, is a dead human body. Cadavers are used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a liv ...

and created detailed drawings of them. However, there are some accounts of this same practice taking place as far back as

ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

, though the specifics are not known.

Etymology

The term ''écorché'', meaning literally " flayed", came into usage via the French Academies (such as the École des Beaux Arts) in the 19th century.

History

Although there are some accounts of practices similar to ''écorché'' as far back as

, the degree of similarity is unclear. The term as used today can be applied with the greatest confidence to the Renaissance period onwards.

Renaissance

During the Renaissance in Italy, around 1450 to 1600, the renewed interest in classical Greek and Roman art styles led to the study of the human anatomy. Human dissection had been banned for many centuries due to the belief that body and soul were inseparable. It was not until the election of

Pope Boniface VIII Pope Boniface VIII (; born Benedetto Caetani; – 11 October 1303) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 December 1294 until his death in 1303. The Caetani, Caetani family was of baronial origin with connections t ...

that the practice of dissection was permitted for medical observation. Many painters and artists scrupulously documented and even performed dissections themselves. Among them were

and

Andreas Vesalius Andries van Wezel (31 December 1514 – 15 October 1564), latinized as Andreas Vesalius (), was an anatomist and physician who wrote '' De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem'' (''On the fabric of the human body'' ''in seven books''), which is ...

, two of the most influential artists in anatomical illustrations. Leonardo da Vinci, in particular, was so detailed in his studies that he was known as the “artist-anatomist” and the foremost pioneer of the depiction of

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

. Leonardo’s anatomical studies contributed to artistic exploration of the movement of the muscles, joints and bones. His goal was to analyze and understand the instruments behind the postures and gestures in the human body.

17th–19th centuries

The study of anatomical figures became popular among the medical academies across Europe around the 17th and 18th century, especially when there was a lack of bodies available for dissections. Medical students relied on these figures because they provided a good representation of what the anatomical model looks like. The ''écorché'' (flayed) figures were made to look like the skin was removed from the body, exposing the muscles and vessels of the model. Some figures were created to strip away the layers of muscles and reveal the skeleton of the model. Many of the life-size scale écorché figures were reproduced in a smaller scale out of bronze that could be easily distributed. ''Écorché'' figures were commonly made out of many different materials: bronze, ivory, plaster, wax, or wood. By the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, wax was the most popular use of material in creating écorché statues. The production of colored wax anatomies allowed for a variety of hues and tone that makes the models appear realistic.

21st century

The ''écorché'' form of study still continues at traditional schools throughout the world including the

New York Academy of Art The New York Academy of Art is a private art university in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City. The academy offers a Master of Fine Arts degree with a focus on technical training and critical discourse, as well as a post-baccalaureate Cer ...

, the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school in the American Fine Arts Society in Manhattan, New York City. The Arts Students League is known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may study f ...

, the Grand Central Academy of Art in New York City, the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1805, it is the longest continuously operating art museum and art school in the United States. The academy's museum ...

in Philadelphia, and the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. File:Van_Gogh_-_Gipsmodell_eines_knienden_Mannes.jpeg,

Van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artwork ...

''Écorché agenouillé'' File:Jacques-Fabien_Gautier-Dagoty,_French_-_Muscles_of_the_Back_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg, Jacques-Fabien Gautier-Dagoty File:An_écorché_figure_(life-size),_lying_prone_on_a_table_Wellcome_L0020561.jpg, C. Landsee File:Écorché cavalier Fragonard Alfort 1.jpg, ''Écorché'' (with

mummification A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay furt ...

) by Honoré Fragonard

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ecorche Artistic techniques