Sketches of Five Arms and a Head (verso)

mid 1500s

Sketches of Five Arms and a Head (verso), mid 1500s. Luzio Romano (Italian, active 1528–75). Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash, and charcoal underdrawing; sheet: 31.6 x 21.6 cm (12 7/16 x 8 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund 1925.1190.b Luzio Romano’s drawing of arms and a head were made from a flayed body (a cadaver with its skin removed). The triangle placed over the facial profile points to the Renaissance artist’s interest in geometry and to the idea that the human body is the primary model of perfect proportions.