Ascending Male Nude
Medium
Black chalk on tan laid paper
Dimensions
32.7 × 14.2 cm (12 7/8 × 5 5/8 in.)
Classification
chalk
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
81703
Art Historical Context
Behold the *Ascending Male Nude*, masterful study by Michelangelo Buonarroti the quintessential Renaissance genius. Rendered in black chalk on tan laid paper this intimate drawing measures just 32.7 × 14.2 cm, a dynamically twisting male figure in mid-ascent. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings, it exemplifies Michelangelo's lifelong passion for the human form, honed during his time in Florence and Rome from the late 15th to mid-16th century. Michelangelo's High Renaissance style shines through in the precise anatomy and fluid musculature, achieved with subtle tonal m...
About the Artist
Michelangelo Buonarroti · 1475–1564
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475–1564) stands as the quintessential figure of the Italian High Renaissance, a sculptor, painter, architect, and poet whose mastery across disciplines embodied the era's humanist ideals. Born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese within the Republic of Florence to a modest family—his father, Lodovico di Buonarroti Simoni, served as a minor magistrate—Michelang...