William Hogarth Study of hipbone (ossia innominata) related to vignette published in The Analysis of Beauty 1753 drawing British Museum |
William Hamilton Anatomical study of the foot ca. 1770-80 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Anonymous Italian artist Anatomical sketches, and seated woman in classical dress ca. 1500-1600 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
"In an untypical moment Freud accuses Leonardo of being unable to draw. A drawing done in anatomical section of the sexual act is inaccurate. What is more it is lacking in pleasure: the man's expression is one of disgust, the position is uncomfortable, the woman's breast is unbeautiful (she does not have a head). The depiction is inaccurate, uncomfortable, undesirable and without desire. It is also inverted: the man's head looks like that of a woman, and the feet are the wrong way around according to the plane of the picture – the man's foot pointing outwards where the woman's foot should be, and her foot in his place. In fact, most of Freud's monograph on Leonardo is addressed to the artist's failure, that is, to the restrictions and limitations which Leonardo himself apparently experienced in relation to his potential achievement. Freud takes failure very seriously, even when it refers to someone who, to the gaze of the outside world, represents the supreme form of artistic success. But in this footnote on the sexual drawing, Freud goes beyond the brief of the largely psychobiographical forms of interpretation that he brings to Leonardo's case. He relates – quite explicitly – a failure to depict the sexual act to bisexuality and to a problem of representational space. The uncertain sexual identity muddles the plane of the image so that the spectator does not know where she or he stands in relationship to the picture. A confusion at the level of sexuality brings with it a disturbance of the visual field."
– Jacqueline Rose, from Sexuality in the Field of Vision (Verso, 1986)
Hieronymus Böllmann after Carlo Cesi Anatomical study of back and arms 1759 engraving Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
Hieronymus Böllmann after Carlo Cesi Anatomical study of skinned male nude carrying sword and shield 1759 engraving Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
Anonymous artist after Peter Paul Rubens Anatomical study of striding skinned male nude ca. 1600-1620 drawing British Museum |
Paulus Pontius after Peter Paul Rubens Three skinned men (illustration for Drawing Book) ca. 1630 engraving British Museum |
Paulus Pontius after Peter Paul Rubens Three skinned men (illustration for Drawing Book) ca. 1630 engraving British Museum |
Anonymous Italian atist Anatomical studies of the backs of two male figures ca. 1600-1700 drawing Morgan Library, New York |
Domenico Beccafumi Anatomical studies before 1551 drawing National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
Bartolomeo Torre Anatomical studies of the muscles of the legs ca. 1529-54 drawing British Museum |
Anonymous Italian artist Anatomical studies of legs, and a horse's head ca. 1525-50 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
follower of Bartolomeo Passarotti Anatomical study of male lower torso and legs ca. 1570 drawing Princeton University Art Museum |
Winslow Homer Nude study with notes on anatomical proportions ca. 1860 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |