1544
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Rib Cages is a 1544 by Battista Franco Veneziano, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a bunch of rib cages stacked up in a weird way. They're drawn accurately, but it's a strange arrangement. The artist was likely inspired by others who studied human anatomy, which was a new and interesting field at the time, and this is reflected in the mix of science and symbolism in the drawing. You can learn more about this style by looking at the work of artist Battista Franco.
Michelangelo was among the first artists in Europe to attend a human dissection and to adopt anatomical knowledge as a necessity for depicting the human figure. These drawings by Battista Franco reflect the increased—and slightly macabre—interest in the interior workings of the human body inspired in part by Michelangelo’s example. Here, the groupings of rib cages, though rendered accurately, are placed into decorative piles. The odd assembly vacillates between scientific study and a symbolic memento mori, or reminder of death.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Battista Franco Veneziano (c. 1510 - 1561), baptized Giovanni Battista Franco, was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker in etching active in Rome, Urbino, and Venice in the mid 16th century. He is also known as…
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