Through its active stance, this ecorché (literally, a "flayed" figure) becomes a living cadaver. The pose, drawn from classical statuary, provides an excellent opportunity to display the muscles in action, notably seen here in the differing tensions and movements of the shoulder, neck, and thigh muscles. The ecorché demonstrates the practice of anatomical representation that arose during the Renaissance from an interest in the human body and its functions. Vesalius' illustrated anatomy book, De humani corpis fabrica libri septem, was published in 1543 and established the activated flayed corpse as the dominant type of anatomical representation. It remained such until the Borghese Gladiator was discovered around 1610 (a cast of which can be seen in this gallery). This provided a new model for the study of muscular anatomy with an intact, healthy body.

The small bronzes of the Renaissance are works of intimacy and spirit which have always been popular with collectors, not as small substitutes for monumental statuary but as objects valuable in themselves.A group of seven Renaissance bronzes has been purchased through the Dunwoody Fund from the Paul Magriel Collection. A Capital¹ attributed to Niccolò Roccatagliata, the sixteenth-century Venetian, shows the suave and daring grace of Mannerism. This unique bronze, notable for its very thin casting, was formerly in the collection of J. Pierpont Morgan. Traditionally thought to have been part of the famous collections of the Este Dukes of Mantua is the Seated Bacchus² in the style of the early sixteenth-century bronze artist, Antico. Derived from a Roman antiquity in Florence, this is the finest version of an important bronze. Another Morgan bronze which later belonged to Enrico Caruso is the Hercules,³ traditionally ascribed to the famous Bertoldo di Giovanni (1420?-1491), though it is possibly a superlative example of German Renaissance sculpture. At some time in its career this bronze, of a dazzling lemon brass color, received a lacquer patination which brutally hid all its final refinements. The patination of early bronzes presents a number of problems and occasionally the patination of age is of the greatest beauty. The fragmentary patina removed from the Hercules was a disfigurement of a later fashion on a bronze quite plainly buffed but not patinated by the artist. Another Hercules,⁴ deriving from one of the most famous small sculptures of the High Renaissance, the boxwood figure by Sant'Agata in the Wallace Collection, is also unique. Quieter, no less precise than the prototype in wood, the bronze lacks the vigorous knotted intensity of Sant'Agata. It is apparently from the hand of a slightly later artist of precision and delicacy. The flayed figure or Écorché, a memento mori,⁵ is a tantalizing bronze of the greatest vigor and quality. A bronze of this type is traditionally ascribed to the Florentine Ludovico Cigoli (1559-1613) but its close connection with Michelangelo has recently been established. Intended for a slightly different purpose, our bronze shows even stronger Michelangelesque qualities and one could argue its connections with waxes by the great sculptor or with the Michelangelesque tendencies in Cigoli's own paintings. At any rate, it is one of the closest reflections of Michelangelo known in the field of small bronzes. Two small figures of Temperance and Justice⁶ complete the series. These are attributed to Niccolò Tribolo of Florence on the basis of resemblance to his figures of Virtues for the tomb of Pope Adrian VI (died 1523) in S. Maria dell' Anima, Rome.An eighth bronze of considerable interest has entered the Institute as a gift. This is the remarkable figure of Cacus⁷ suffering the torments of Hell. A scorpion bites his toe as he writhes bitten and encircled by serpents. This vision from Dante is a work most characteristic of the Renaissance in the physical magnificence of the suffering figure and the introduction of a slug, a beetle, a grasshopper and a splendid tree trunk, all done with the greatest gusto and heroic naturalism. It bars the attribution usual to sensual renditions of overwhelming male physiques—Bandinelli. It is not unworthy of that artist.Endnotes

1. On cylindrical period base. Exhibited: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1900; the Metropolitan Museum, 1914.
2. Ex colls.: Este; Robert Mayer, Vienna (no. 24).
3. On triangular base of the period. Ex colls.: Pulsky, Budapest; Pfungst, London; J. Pierpont Morgan; Enrico Caruso. Exhibited: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1900; Metropolitan Museum, 1914; Baltimore Museum of Art, 1926.
4. The club is modern.
5. Ex colls.: von Aicholz, Vienna; Robert Mayer, Vienna (no. 27). Exhibited: Troppau, Austria, 1907; Detroit Institute of Arts, 1958.
6. Ex colls.: August Zeiss, Berlin; Sotheby's (coll. Mrs. Best) 26 March, 1920, lot 12.
7. Ex colls,: Remy von Haanen, Vienna; Guido von Rho, Vienna. Wrongly published as Laocoön by Edmund Brown in the 1908 von Rho catalogue. See Dante, Divine Comedy, Inferno, xxiv, 97-99.

Referenced Works of Art

1. Niccolò Roccatagliata (att.), Venetian, c. 1580-1635. Cupid, 16th century. Bronze with black lacquer patina, 12”. The William Hood Dunwoody Fund, 1961, 61.35.1.
2. Antico (Pier Giacomo Ilario Bonacolsi) (att.), Mantuan, 1460-1528. Seated Bacchus. Bronze with lacquer over olive patina, 10 1/2”. The William Hood Dunwoody Fund, 1961, 61.35.2.
3. Bertoldo di Giovanni (att.), Florentine, 1420(?)-1491. Hercules, 15th century. Bronze, 8 1/2”. The William Hood Dunwoody Fund, 1961, 61.35.3.
4. Unknown Artist, Italian, 16th century. Hercules. Bronze with lacquer and brown patinas, 9 1/2”. The William Hood Dunwoody Fund, 1961, 61.35.4.
5. Ludovico Cigoli (att.), Florentine, 1559-1613. Écorché. Bronze with lacquer and brown patinas, 9 1/2”. The William Hood Dunwoody Fund, 1961, 61.35.5.
6. Niccolò Tribolo (att.), Florentine, 1485-1550. Temperance, 16th century. Bronze with brown patinas, 9”. The William Hood Dunwoody Fund, 1961, 61.35.6.
7. Niccolò Tribolo (att.), Florentine, 1485-1550. Justice, 16th century. Bronze with brown patinas, 9”. The William Hood Dunwoody Fund, 1961, 61.35.7.
8. Baccio Bandinelli (att.), Florentine, 1488-1560. Cacus. Bronze with black lacquer patina, 12”. Gift of Edward R. Lubin, Inc., 1962, 62.3.