![]() ![]() On Bramante’s death, Raphael took over as architect (Tyler & Kubovy). Bramante was the architect of St Peter’s Cathedral, a neighbouring building. Raphael’s Study for the Figure of Bramante (pencil on paper) reveals ways in which the artist sought to represent, specifically, the head and hands of Donato Bramante in the School of Athens, a fresco painted in 1510 on one wall of the Raphaelle Stanze in the Palazzi Pontifici in the Vatican. The longest metacarpal – the bones that connect the finger joints to the bones at the base of the hand – is actually that which connects to the index finger, not the middle finger which might intuitively be thought to be the case because the middle finger is the longest.Īnother artist whose delicate preparatory studies I admire is Raphael. The remaining joints in the hand are purely hinge joints. This seems logical now that I have thought about it: the joints offer not only hinge-like movement but also a degree of rotation. ![]() In studying the anatomy of the hand, I discovered that it contains ball and socket joints (similar to the hip and shoulder) at the base of each finger (Bammes, p.174). It clearly shows articulation at the elbow and wrist and conveys a sense of flexibility and potential movement. In the Study of Arms (pen & ink on paper), the hand is presented as a skeleton without visible muscles while the skeletal structure of the arm is concealed by layers of muscle. Although his anatomical drawings did not contribute towards the advancement of scientific knowledge in the manner of Vesalius’ drawings later, when Leonardo’s notebooks re-emerged at the end of the 19th century, the drawings were acknowledged to be the finest ever drawn, anatomical errors notwithstanding, and greatly influenced the ways in which the human body has been represented in illustrations through the 19th and 20th centuries (Simblet, p.12). Leonardo made many drawings based on dissections before his notebooks disappeared from view for 300 years after his death. The third study I have chosen, The Study of Arms is anatomical. I especially like the way in which the contours of the arm have been depicted by repeated fine lines which collectively suggest the muscle in the forearm. There is rather less tonal variation in this sketch and it doesn’t have quite the depth of the first study possibly also due to the lack of context. However, it is a beautiful drawing. The proximal phalanxes of the first two fingers are barely visible – drastically foreshortened. The hand appears delicate, possibly a woman’s, or even a child’s. In the second study which I have chosen, Study of a Hand (red chalk on paper), the forearm is once again foreshortened and to a greater extent. Most of the back of the hand is hidden from view behind the “knuckle ridge” and the forearm is also foreshortened. In Leonardo’s study, referred to above, the alignment is clear and believable. A particular difficulty that I find in drawing hands is alignment and shaping of the knuckles relative to the fingers. The outline in general is quite strong, which surprises me because art students are discouraged from using outlines that surround their subject, as this one does. The pen and ink Study of a Hand, below, has depth – the fingers closing around inner darkness of the palm create three-dimensionality, as does the darkened outline of the hand where it lies against the fabric of a coat. I found several studies, which use different media. To begin with, I looked at drawings by Leonardo da Vinci. As Assignment 4 approaches, I decided that I needed to focus on hands in order to identify specific difficulties. Hands remain a challenge in life drawing classes. ![]()
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