Male Nude Torso with Raised Arms

Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Popham considered this small, delicately executed study a pre-Roman drawing by the artist, copied probably from an antique statue of the Flaying of Marsyas. However, the pose of the shoulders and armpit here does not seem to correspond to the tight compression of the shoulders and disjointed raising of the arms, with wrists bound above the head, that is typical of Marsyas figures (see Bober and Rubinstein 1986, pls 32-4). The figure's pose in Parmigianino's study, with a gently distended torso and raised arms, seems more appropriate for a portrayual of the crucified Christ. The stumps indicating the arms may suggest that the drawing is based on a wax sketch model. The artist concentrated on the rendering of the torso, blending the strokes seamlessly by means of stumping and inflecting the contours with small points of shadow. To provide a contrast, he left much of the parallel hatching in the background evident. (Carmen C. Bambach)

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art