Reclining Female Nude
1585/1600
Medium
Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown and gray wash, over traces of graphite, with red chalk offset, on cream laid paper, pieced together
Dimensions
24.1 × 34 cm (9 1/2 × 13 7/16 in.)
Classification
ink with wash
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
82344
Art Historical Context
This delicate drawing, created by an unknown Italian artist between 1585 and 1600, captures the graceful form of a reclining female nude. Such studies were central to Renaissance artistic practice, allowing artists to explore, light, and pose committing to larger paintings ores. The late sixteenth-century date the work at the transition from Renaissance ideals toward the more elongated, expressive figures of Mannerism. The medium itself reveals the artist’s sophisticated technique. Using pen and brown ink with layers of brown and gray wash over faint graphite, the creator built subtle tonal d...