Three Male Nudes (c. 1540–47): Art, History and Details

Three Male Nudes (c. 1540–47) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Domenico Beccafumi (Italian, 1486–1551).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Domenico Beccafumi was intensely aware of the work of his contemporary Michelangelo when he developed his own style for projects in Siena, south of Florence. This drawing is a study for a chiaroscuro print, a type of woodblock print using several blocks, some colored, to create light and shadow. The drawing features three male nudes whose roles are unknown. The closest figure, reclining with his back toward the viewer, recalls ancient sculptures of river gods as well as works by Michelangelo, including the reclining figures he sculpted for the Medici tombs in Florence.

Object facts

• Title: Three Male Nudes
• Date: c. 1540–47
• Creator attribution: Domenico Beccafumi (Italian, 1486–1551)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: black chalk or charcoal with brush and black chalk or charcoal wash, heightened with white gouache; incised
• Dimensions: Sheet: 23.2 x 41.7 cm (9 1/8 x 16 7/16 in.); Secondary Support: 23.2 x 41.9 cm (9 1/8 x 16 1/2 in.); Tertiary Support: 24.8 x 42.7 cm (9 3/4 x 16 13/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - Italian
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1958.313

Collection credit

Delia E. Holden Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Richards, Louise. "'River Gods' by Domenico Beccafumi." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 46, no. 2 (February 1959): 24-29.
• Takahatake, Naoko, et al. The Chiaroscuro Woodcut in Renaissance Italy. Los Angeles : Los Angeles County Museum of Art ; Munich ; New York : DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2018.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.