Lot 8: Bartolomeo Torri (Arezzo circa 1529-1554)

An ecorché study of a shoulder and right arm and studies of the bones of the right arm and of five heads
black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash
8 1/8 x 8 7/8 in. (206 x 224 mm.)

J. Richardson, Sen., his mount, with attribution 'Mich: Angelo' and shelfmarks (partly erased).

Torri's only known drawings are a small group of anatomical or ecorché studies. This specialization was noted by Vasari, who records that Torri was thrown out of the lodgings in Rome he shared with the artist Giulio Clovio because of 'his filthy anatomy, for he kept so many limbs and pieces of men under his bed and all over his rooms that they poisoned the whole house' (G. Vasari, Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, London, 1996, II, p. 212).
Other drawings by Torri are at the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh (L. Ragghianti Collobi, Il Libro de'Disegni del Vasari, Florence, 1974, pl. 371 [as Rosso Fiorentino]), Princeton (F. Gibbons, Catalogue of Italian Drawings in the Art Museum, Princeton University, Princeton, 1977, no. 15), Cleveland (E.J. Olszewski and J. Glaubinger, The Draughtsman's Eye, exhib. cat., Cleveland, Museum of Art, 1981, no. 66), the British Museum (inv. no. 1971.10.11.1; E.J. Olszewski and J. Glaubinger, op. cit., figs. 66a & 66b) and the Uffizi (R.P. Ciardi and L. Tongiorgi Tomasi, Immagini anatomiche e naturalistiche nei disegni degli Uffizi Sec. XVI e XVII, exhib. cat., Florence, Uffizi, 1984, no. 10, pl. 12 [as Domenico Beccafumi]).