A Nude Male Seen from the Back in Clouds (after Michelangelo Buonarroti) 1602

Daniel Fröschl created this drawing, "A Nude Male Seen from the Back in Clouds," around 1603 with pen and brown ink, watercolor, and lead white. As the title indicates, this artwork is based on the work of the famous Italian artist Michelangelo Buonarroti, who died some 40 years before this drawing was made in Germany. It is an exercise in admiration and emulation of the Italian Renaissance style, whose idealized forms were closely associated with both sacred and secular power. The social role of art at this time was closely bound up with religious institutions and the aristocracy. Artists were expected to study classical art and, in doing so, to refine taste and demonstrate their connoisseurship. Fröschl’s choice of subject matter and the medium of drawing indicates this was likely a private study, rather than a finished work for public display. Art historians draw on many resources to understand works such as this, including archival records, artist biographies, and studies of artistic styles and techniques.