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Female Nude

Creator

Dutch Artist · 1548–1606

Scholars know Karel van Mander, "the Dutch Vasari," first for his writings and second for his accomplishments as a painter. After training with a poet and painter, he spent the years from 1573 to 1577 in Italy. There both Giorgio Vasari's book, *Lives of the Italian Artists,* and his Mannerist paintings greatly impressed him. When van Mander returned from Rome to Holland, he brought Bartholomäus S

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Date: about 1590
Medium: Pen and brown ink and grayish brown wash over black chalk
Culture: Dutch
Department: Drawings
Institution: Getty Museum

A female nude with both halves of her body balanced in a relatively straightforward contrapposto pose stands with arms outstretched. Karel van Mander first sketched the figure lightly in black chalk, next shaded it in wash, and finally added the swelling and tapering pen work. He drew only what was essential: small circles form her breasts, the eyes and mouth appear through quick dots of ink, and a single swirling stroke delineates her hair. The sure ink lines and lack of correction display van Mander's instinctive draftsmanship. As part of their teaching at the drawing school they formed, known as the Haarlem Academy, Van Mander and his friends made sketches of single nude figures, often in strikingly difficult, contorted poses. This drawing represents a relatively restrained example of the genre.

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