Raphael, Nude Man with
raised arms, a drawing
Italy, around AD 1511-12
This is one of a series of black chalk drawings
for an
altarpiece
on the theme of the Resurrection of Christ. It shows a nude study
for a Roman guard cowering from the appearance of the Risen Christ
above him. The muscular form, the dramatic pose of the figure as he
shields his face from the light of Christ and the sudden turning
movement of the body all show the artist's understanding of
the work of Michelangelo. Raphael had fully absorbed the ideal and
heroic forms of Michelangelo's figures then being painted
on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel,
Rome.
In this drawing,
however, Raphael was less concerned with every detail of the body
and its musculature. Rather, in a careful study of the posed model,
he suggests the dynamic movement of the body in the outline of the
figure and the shadows. The
hatching
provides the shading of the powerful muscles of both arms and legs.
He focused on the upper torso and the complex position of the
foreshortened
arms and legs. An alternative and more open position for the right
leg was drawn to the
left.
Raphael designed but
never painted this altarpiece for the Chigi Chapel in S. Maria
della Pace, Rome, which he decorated for his friend, Agostino
Chigi, a wealthy Sienese banker, around
1511-12.
P. Pouncey and J. A. Gere, Italian drawings in the Depa-3 (London, The British Museum Press, 1962)
P. Joannides, The drawings of Raphael (Phaidon, 1983)
F. Ames-Lewis, The draftsman Raphael (New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1986)
J.A Gere and N. Turner, Drawings by Raphael, from the, exh. cat. (London, The British Museum Press, 1983)