Nude Male Figure Seated on the Ground

Nude Male Figure Seated on the Ground

Amico Aspertini

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The figure, posed on a shelf like projection ornamented with a scalloped valance, may be studied for one of the many monochrome façade decorations that Aspertini is said to have executed, above all in Bologna (Vasari 1568, vol. 5, pp. 179-180). The reeds or long grasses indicated in the background are possibly intended to identify the figure as a river god. The stocky, thick-necked physical type is typical of Aspertini, but here the figure is invested with a certain monumental nobility. In figural type and technique of execution, the Metropolitan Museum drawing relates to a sheet in the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi (inv. 1269 F), in which the reclining male nude figure faces right. The flourish of drapery over the figures' shoulders and the indication of foliage in the background of the compositions suggest that both drawings may be studies for the same or similar façade decorations. Stylistically, the Museum's drawing and that in the Uffizi can be dated in the late 1530s.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Nude Male Figure Seated on the GroundNude Male Figure Seated on the GroundNude Male Figure Seated on the GroundNude Male Figure Seated on the GroundNude Male Figure Seated on the Ground

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.