Ecorche
DEFINITION
Any painted, sculpted, or drawn figure depicting the muscles of the human body without skin. Practiced by Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472, Italian), a theorist and Renaissance architect. Source: Ralph Mayer, "A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques" <br><br>A figure drawn, painted, or sculpted to show the muscles of the body without skin. The Renaissance architect and theorist, Leon Battista Alberti (Italian, 1404-1472), recommended that when a painter is going to depict a nude, he should first arrange the muscles and bones, then pick out a nice skin to go with them.(pr. ay-KOHR-shay)Examples: Nicolas Beatrizet, Anatomia, from Juan de Valverde de Hamusco's 'La anatomia del corpo humano', 1556. This man has flayed himself, and is holding up his own skin.Jean-Antoine Houdon (French, 1741-1828), L'?corch? (Flayed Man, Standing), 1767, plaster cast taken from the original ?corch? (in marble?) Such life-size sculptures of a flayed man have served as models for art students studying human anatomy, in preparation for life drawing. Students' uses of such figures has diminished greatly since the end of the nineteenth century.