Reclining Male Nude, Foreshortened

Tintoretto, 1562

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Start at the feet nearest you and climb the body to the head thrown back at the far end, noticing how short the whole figure looks from this angle.

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Tintoretto drew this man lying on his back as if seen from his feet, so that the legs and body shorten sharply toward the head. He worked in charcoal, with touches of white chalk, on blue paper that has since faded to a bluish gray.

Charcoal, heightened with white chalk, on blue laid paper (faded to bluish gray) · 18.1 × 27.6 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · High Renaissance and Mannerism

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Art Institute of Chicago: Reclining Male Nude, Foreshortened

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Details and source

Museum title: Reclining Male Nude, Foreshortened
Artist: Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto Italian, 1519-1594
Date: 1562
Medium: Charcoal, heightened with white chalk, on blue laid paper (faded to bluish gray)
Dimensions: 18.1 × 27.6 cm (7 3/16 × 10 7/8 in.)
Credit line: Margaret Day Blake Collection
Image license: CC0 1.0 · Public domain
Museum record: Art Institute of Chicago

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Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.