The Ecorche and Artistic Anatomy

First in a collection of posts for the Woodstock School of Art's Ecorche and Artistic Anatomy classes.

The term écorché, meaning literally "flayed", came into usage via the French Academies (such as the École des Beaux Arts) in the 19th century. An écorché ​is a figure drawn, painted, or sculpted showing the muscles of the body without skin. Renaissance architect and theorist, Leon Battista Alberti recommended that when painters intend to depict a nude, they should first arrange the muscles and bones, then depict the overlying skin.The anatomical drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci are most probably the best example of the ecorche in how they depict the importance the skeleton and overlying muscles in conveying the volume and structure in the living figure.Beside the aesthetic appeal and technical gratification of the ecorche in sculpture and drawing, it is the knowledge that the ecorche provides the artist which is it's true purpose:the freedom to visualize in three dimensions and depict the occupancy of space and subcutaneous complexity of human form as revealed by light.