A Sheet of Anatomical Studies

Prints and Drawings

1600/10

Peter Paul Rubens
Flemish, 1577-1640

In addition to his study of Classical antiquity, Peter Paul Rubens also developed his sense of ideal anatomical form through proto-scientific treatises, some of which represented the muscles of the body with the skin flayed. Rubens adopted this manner, known as écorché, for his compelling representation of two interlocking forearms and a face. A virtuoso performance of the use of pen and ink (perhaps the most unforgiving media since it cannot be easily blended or erased), the drawing belongs to a group of about a dozen similar sheets that Rubens intended to publish as an anatomical treatise. The project was never realized, but one of the members of his workshop distributed a series of engravings years after the artist’s death that included these images together with other highlights of the artist’s repertoire.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Peter Paul Rubens
Title: A Sheet of Anatomical Studies
Place: Flanders (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1600–1610
Medium: Pen and brown ink on ivory laid paper
Dimensions: 27.1 × 18.8 cm (10 11/16 × 7 7/16 in.)
Credit Line: Regenstein Acquisition Fund
Reference Number: 2016.143
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/235541/manifest.json

Michael Jaffé, “Rubens’s Anatomy Book,” in Old Master Drawings, Christie, Manson & Woods Ltd., London, 6–7 July 1987, pp. 78–79, lot 65.
Anne-Marie Logan, Peter Paul Rubens: The Drawings, exh. Cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004), p. 98, fig. 53 (verso).
Anne-Marie Logan, “Rubens’s Drawings after Julius Held,” Oud Holland 120, no. ¾ (2007), p. 165.
Clifford S. Ackley, “Master Drawings from the Collection of Horace Wood Brock,” The Magazine Antiques 175:2 (February 2009), pp. 52–53, 56, fig. 1.
Domenico Laurenza, “Art and Anatomy in Renaissance Italy: Images from a Scientific Revolution,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin LXIX:3 (2012), pp. 40, 43, fig. 60.

Antwerp, Rubens Cantoor: een verzamling tekeningen ontstaan in Rubens’ atelier, 15 May–27 June, 1993, pp. 57 (color ill.), 97, cat. 7.
New York, Katrin Bellinger, Kunstandel, and W. M. Brady & Co. at W. M. Brady & Co., Old Master Drawings, May 8 – 31, 1997, cat. no. 13 ( color ill.).
New York, W. M. Brady & Co. and Thomas Williams Fine Art at W. M. Brady & Co., Old Master Drawings, May 9 – 25, 2001, cat. no. 16, (color ill.).
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Splendor and Elegance: European Decorative Arts and Drawings from the Horace Wood Brock Collection, Jan. 22–May 17, 2009, pp. 12 (color ill.), 13, 90–92, 149, cat. 1.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Rubens, Rembrandt, and Drawing in the Golden Age”, September 28, 2019 - January 5, 2020, pp. 56, 57 (ill.), 313, 335, (ill.), cat. 11, cat. by Victoria Sancho Lobis, et. al.

Sir Roger Newdigate (sometimes spelled Newdegate), 5th Baronet (1719–1806), from 1738/40; Newdegate Settlement, London; sold, Christie’s, London, July 6, 1987, lot 65; Bernard Quaritch Ltd, London; Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London, 1992; Elmer Seibel, Boston; Katrin Bellinger, Munich; Christopher Rupp, New York, 1997; sold, Sotheby’s, New York, Jan. 23, 2001, lot 156; W. M. Brady & Co., New York; Horace Wood Brock, Gloucester, Massachusetts and New York, 2001 until 2016; Sold by Stephen Ongpin, London, to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2016.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.