Écorché

The écorché ( from Latin excortocare, flay '; Latin root word: ex, from ' and cortex, bark ' ) refers to a style of art depiction of figures, in humans or animals shown with just muscles and bones without their skin be. As an anatomical method is referred to preparations in which the internal organs and the bones are preserved while removing the skin.

Art

There are only signs that écorché -like methods have been applied in ancient times. The earliest clear evidence of artistic Ecorches can be found from the Renaissance. The architect Leon Battista Alberti recommended for naked figures that first the bones and muscles and then the skin should be drawn about it. Leonardo da Vinci turned this technique in his first studies, where he abbildete animals dissected limbs. In this way he could represent fine structures of the body very closely. The term écorché even in the French language occurs in the 18th century for the first time in the Dictionnaire de l' Académie Francoise of 1787. ( In the current French slang is referred to écorché the " muscle man ". ) The écorché method in the 21st century in the United States still used at various art schools, so at the New York Academy of Art, the Art Students League of New York and the Academy of Art University of San Francisco.

Anatomy

The anatomical Präpariertechnik the Ecorches can be traced back to the 18th century. It was founded in the 1765/66 Veterinary School Veterinary School in Maisons -Alfort and other French academies applied. It was in particular the first director of the Veterinary School in Alfort, the anatomist Honoré Fragonard, who created many objects using this method. Visitors to his collection, which is still preserved in part in the Musée Fragonard and get to the mainly of German naturalists and physicians reports also were critical. They saw in the Ecorches less valuable objects for the Doctrine of the body as representations of wax ( moulage ).