42. Bartolomeo Torri (or Torre; Italian, Arezzo ca. 1527–ca. 1552 Arezzo). Muscles and bones of the leg. Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash; 163/4 x 101/4 in. (42.6 x 26 cm). Princeton University Art Museum, Bequest of Dan Fellows Platt, Class of 1895 (x1948-757) 43. Italy, 16th century. Studies of the superficial anatomy of the leg and a horse’s head. Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash; 13 x 95/8 in. (33 x 24.5 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman Collection, 1975 (1975.1.377)
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his anatomical-artistic drawings as independent works. Anatomical drawing, ostensibly based on the direct dissection of a cadaver (which Bartolomeo sometimes depicted hanging) appears to have been for him a genre in its own right. A sheet in the Metropolitan Museum that also falls into the category of a drawing using washes (fig. 43) is a typical study of how muscles relate to the surface of the body. To the right, directly above a horse’s head, are the letters Ba. Could these be the first two letters of Bartolomeo Torri’s name, which appears on other anatomical drawings certainly by him?35 Another singular and highly finished drawing (fig. 44) represents a body half flayed and half covered in skin. It seems to want to imitate the blackish tone of printed images without losing the pictorial quality of a watercolor. This could as easily be a study for a print as an experiment in comparing and emulating the different techniques of drawing and engraving. The artist-anatomists such as Michelangelo and Bartolomeo Torri who carried out independent anatomical research are perhaps the most fascinating. These private dissections, quite distinct from the “public” ones performed in universities or hospitals, constitute an ever-mysterious and little-studied field, in part because there is so little official documentation. Vasari’s description of Bartolomeo Torri keeping pieces of corpses in his home may be exaggerated. Yet when documents exist, they speak clearly. In the second half of the sixteenth century officials in Florence authorized the release of cadavers for dissection not only to physicians (understandable, to modern minds) but also to artists, including Vincenzo Danti and Alessandro Allori.36 This was