Studies of legs, knees and arms c. 1520

Rosso Fiorentino made this study of legs, knees, and arms in Italy, sometime in the early 16th century. The drawing gives us a glimpse into the artistic training of the Renaissance. During this period, art academies systematized the study of human anatomy to elevate painting to the status of science. They were trying to make art an intellectual pursuit, not just a manual skill. You can see this drive toward intellectualization in the painstaking detail of Fiorentino's red chalk lines. Fiorentino was associated with the Mannerist style, which rejected the classicism of the High Renaissance. He embraced the idea of art as artifice, showing off the artist's skill. We can research academy records to better understand how students developed their artistic style. By looking at such visual codes we see the ways in which an artist both embraces and rejects the institutions around them.