Nude Studies

Two muscular male figures are shown in contrasting poses: one leaning on a long staff and the other viewed from behind with an outstretched arm. A faint, third head is sketched between them, and a prominent handwritten inscription in German occupies the right side of the paper. This sheet served as a preparatory study for Raphael's fresco 'The Battle of Ostia'.

This drawing is a primary artifact of the intellectual exchange between the Italian and Northern Renaissance; it was sent by Raphael to Albrecht Dürer to 'show him his hand.' Dürer's own handwriting on the sheet documents this gift, representing a symbolic union of Neoplatonic idealism and Northern natural philosophy in the study of the human form.