Two Studies of a Reclining Female Nude

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Two Studies of a Reclining Female Nude

Creator

Domenico Tintoretto (Domenico Robusti)

Italian Artist · 1560–1635

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Like many family-trained artists, Domenico Tintoretto began his career by helping his renowned father, Jacopo Tintoretto, in his Venice workshop. In 1576, when Domenico was seventeen years old, he was admitted to the Venetian painters' guild. One of his first assignments outside the workshop included assisting his father with a commission to execute paintings in the Doge's Palace. Domenico then re

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Date
1590–1610
Medium
Black chalk heightened with white chalk
Culture
Italian
Department
Drawings
Institution
Getty Museum

Resting her head on her hand, a voluptuous woman stretches across the sheet and displays the rounded curves of her nude body. In this quick sketch, Domenico Tintoretto conveyed the model's languorous repose as she relaxes, head thrown back and legs outstretched. The artist focused on the central part of her body in the upper right corner. His confident strokes of black chalk define the sensuous curves of her body, while quickly-drawn white chalk lines add texture and substance to her form. In this sketch, Tintoretto also explored different ways to position his model on paper. This is most visible in her face, where the outlines of two poses overlap. Tintoretto probably made this sketch for future use in a mythological composition, as both the woman's pose and form resemble the figure of the goddess Venus in contemporary Venetian artworks. But the artist's will, which mentions "150 studies from nature after men and 50 after women," reveals his general fascination with the human figure.

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