A carved oak lifesize and articulated artist's mannequin, probably French, early 19th century

Wooden mannequins, also known as lay figures, have been an ever-present element in artist’s studios since at least the Renaissance, found in the ateliers of Michelangelo, Titian, Edgar Degas, Giovanni Boldini and Gustave Courbet among countless others. These obliging and indefatigable models were used to study the figure, with its skeleton and musculature abstracted into geometric forms, and, perhaps more commonly, to recreate the drape of clothing or fabric and the resulting fall of light and shadow over the human form. By the end of the 18th century, demand from artists for accurately proportioned and fully articulating figures was so great that mannequin–makers went to ingenious and extraordinary lengths in order to engineer objects that are works of art in themselves.

An articulated mannequin was sold at Sotheby's New York, 19th century European Art, 6 November 2014, lot 1.