Right Arm Écorgé

This model in wax of a right arm écorgé is an anatomical study by an unknown artist made in Florence ca 1550.

It was formerly ascribed to Michelangelo and appears to be a study for the marble figure of Cupid in the V&A (7560-1861).

The French word écorché literally means flayed or skinned. It has been adopted almost universally by scholars when speaking of a human figure stripped of its skin and thus displaying the superficial layers of muscles. Sculpted models or statuettes in which the muscles of the body are revealed (or écorchés) first appeared in sixteenth century Europe, and in Italy primarily.