Bartolomeo Aretino (Bartolomeo Torre?)

See Nagler, I, 206; Thieme-Becker, III, 295; Vasari (1647), III, 383-388.

These powerfully executed studies distinctly echo the vigorous style of Michelangelo. The artist is tentatively identified the artist as either Bartolomeo da Arezzo (fl. 1560-78 in Rome), or Bartolomeo Torre (d. 1554 in Rome), the latter being the more likely choice because of his penchant for anatomy. The drawings are signed "de mano de bartolomeo aretino 1554."

In either case, the influence of Michelangelo would have been felt. Bartolomeo da Arezzo, a young admirer of the artist, belonged to a group of students who often met in the Sistine Chapel to sketch designs from the frescoes (Fiorillo, p. 379). Bartolomeo Torre studied under G. Antonio Lappoli, who was known to have copied Michelangelo's style (Vasari, p. 387). After Lappoli's death in 1552, Torre was invited to Rome by the renowned miniaturist Giulio Clovio.

According to Vasari, Torre was proclaimed the most gifted anatomical draftsman in the city. He became obsessed by the subject, however, and supposedly died after his house was filled with contagion from flayed corpses and dismembered bodies. These drawings would have been among his final works. Vasari referred to Torre's drawings as "wondrous," an appropriate description of the present studies.

Although it has not been determined whether engravings after these drawings are extant, the studies evidently were meant to be reproduced, probably engraved on copper. The outlines show tracing with a blunt pencil, clearly visible on the second leaf. The drawings could have been easily transferred to the plate by means of colored chalk. Each study is accompanied by a number in a sixteenth- century hand, possibly inserted by the engraver. There are also price notices in a contemporary Spanish hand ("dos reales").

The bold outlines and energetic modeling in these anatomical studies place them among the most striking of that genre in the art of the Renaissance. The subjects are:

Leaf 1 recto (n.11): Head and breast of a male corpse partly skinned, in bold fore-shortening. To the right another sketch of the throat of the same corpse.

Leaf 1 verso (n.12): Head, breast, and shoulders of the same corpse, in profile.

Leaf 2 recto (no.25): Two different sketches of the legs of the same corpse (suspended), viewed from the back. The left leg is skinned.

Leaf 2 verso (no.23 and 24): A left foot cut off from a corpse, in two phases of dissection. The first shows the muscles, the second the bones.