Realistic Anatomy


	Realistic Anatomy

Donatello
St. Mark
marble, 1411-13

Unlike medieval representations of human figures which are often squatty or sometimes elongated unnaturally [click here to review examples], Renaissance depictions of the human form are more correct anatomically. The great fifteenth century-Florentine sculptor Donatello made the same momentous discovery that Greek artists made in the 6th century BCE -- the principle of weight shift. Instead of a rigid column, the body is flexible structure, with drapery which moves with the body. Although Donatello's subject here is religious, he sculpted a variety of types--military men, nudes, children.

Michelangelo
David
marble, 1501-4

Medieval artists had rarely depicted nude figures -- only Adam and Eve and the risen figures at the Last Judgment were typically nude. Here Michelangelo uses the nude figure in this monumental work (14'H) to express psychology -- the tension and pent-up energy David feels before the battle with Goliath. Like Donatello, Michelangelo was influenced by classical depictions of the nude figure.

Titian
Venus of Urbino
1538

By the second half of the fifteenth century artists began to depict the nude figure for its own sake. Although the title of this work, by the Venetian artist Titian, suggests a classical/mythical subject, the nude woman has no attributes to associate her with the classical goddess.

Benvenuto Cellini
Perseus and Medusa
bronze, 1545-54

^{both: MAS}

A goldsmith by trade and writer of his autobiography (a vanity we would have never seen in the medieval period), Cellini gloried in the depiction of the nude body. [Click here for additional views.]

All images marked ^MAS were photographed on location by Mary Ann Sullivan. All other images were scanned from other sources or downloaded from the World Wide Web; they are posted on this password-protected site for educational purposes, at Bluffton College only, under the "fair use" clause of U.S. copyright law.

Page maintained by Gerald W. Schlabach, gws@bluffton.edu. Last updated: 19 April 1999.

	Donatello St. Mark marble, 1411-13
	Unlike medieval representations of human figures which are often squatty or sometimes elongated unnaturally [click here to review examples], Renaissance depictions of the human form are more correct anatomically. The great fifteenth century-Florentine sculptor Donatello made the same momentous discovery that Greek artists made in the 6th century BCE -- the principle of weight shift. Instead of a rigid column, the body is flexible structure, with drapery which moves with the body. Although Donatello's subject here is religious, he sculpted a variety of types--military men, nudes, children.
	Michelangelo David marble, 1501-4
	Medieval artists had rarely depicted nude figures -- only Adam and Eve and the risen figures at the Last Judgment were typically nude. Here Michelangelo uses the nude figure in this monumental work (14'H) to express psychology -- the tension and pent-up energy David feels before the battle with Goliath. Like Donatello, Michelangelo was influenced by classical depictions of the nude figure.
	Titian Venus of Urbino 1538
	By the second half of the fifteenth century artists began to depict the nude figure for its own sake. Although the title of this work, by the Venetian artist Titian, suggests a classical/mythical subject, the nude woman has no attributes to associate her with the classical goddess.
	Benvenuto Cellini Perseus and Medusa bronze, 1545-54
^{both: MAS}	A goldsmith by trade and writer of his autobiography (a vanity we would have never seen in the medieval period), Cellini gloried in the depiction of the nude body. [Click here for additional views.]