Male nude lying on his side with his right arm behind his back
ca. 1635–1640
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 3 1/8 × 4 3/4 in. (8 × 12 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1953
Accession Number
53.509.10
Tags
Art Historical Context
Salvator Rosa, a fiery Italian Baroque artist (16151673), crafted this intimate etching around 1635–1640, during his early career in Naples Titled *Male Nude Lying on His Side with His Arm Behind His Back*, the small sheet (just 3 1/8 × 4 3/4 inches) captures a reclining male figure in a relaxed yet dynamically twisted pose, evoking classical ideals of the body while infused with Rosa's characteristic energy. Etching allowed Rosa to incise bold, expressive lines into the copper plate, producing rich tonal contrasts and fluid contours that highlight the model's musculature and subtle interactio...
About the Artist
Salvator Rosa · 1615–1673
Salvator Rosa was born in 1615 in Arenella, on the outskirts of Naples, into a world of artistic ambition and turbulent talent. His early training came through his maternal uncle, the painter Paolo Greco, and his brother-in-law Francesco Fracanzano, himself a pupil of the great Spanish-born Neapolitan master Jusepe de Ribera. Rosa showed a fierce independence from the start, resisting his father's...