Nude Male Figure Seated on the Ground

Amico Aspertini

ca. 1535–40 · Black chalk, brush and brown wash, highlighted with white gouache, on brown-washed paper · Drawings and Prints

The figure, posed on a shelf like projection ornamented with a scalloped valance, may be studied for one of the many monochrome façade decorations that Aspertini is said to have executed, above all in Bologna (Vasari 1568, vol. 5, pp. 179-180). The reeds or long grasses indicated in the background are possibly intended to identify the figure as a river god. The stocky, thick-necked physical type is typical of Aspertini, but here the figure is invested with a certain monumental nobility. In figural type and technique of execution, the Metropolitan Museum drawing relates to a sheet in the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi (inv. 1269 F), in which the reclining male nude figure faces right. The flourish of drapery over the figures' shoulders and the indication of foliage in the background of the compositions suggest that both drawings may be studies for the same or similar façade decorations. Stylistically, the Museum's drawing and that in the Uffizi can be dated in the late 1530s.

Artist

Amico Aspertini

Date

ca. 1535–40

Medium

Black chalk, brush and brown wash, highlighted with white gouache, on brown-washed paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Walter C. Baker Gift, 1967