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Écorché by Leonardo da Vinci.
Écorché by Ligier Richier
Écorché by Paulus Pontius.

An écorché (French pronunciation: ​[ekɔʁʃe]) is a figure drawn, painted, or sculpted showing the muscles of the body without skin, normally as a figure study for a work, or as an exercise in training. Renaissance architect and theorist, Leon Battista Alberti recommended that when painters intend to depict a nude, they should first arrange the muscles and bones, then depict the overlying skin.[1]


Some of the first well known studies of this kind were performed by Leonardo da Vinci. His studies included dissecting the cadaver and creating detailed drawings of the subject. However, there are some accounts of this same practice taking place as far back as ancient Greece, though the specifics are not known.

The term écorché, meaning literally "flayed", came into usage via the French Academies (such as the École des Beaux Arts) in the 19th century. This form of study still continues at traditional schools throughout the world including the New York Academy of Art, the Art Students League of New York, the Grand Central Academy of Art in New York City, and the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.



During the Renaissance in Italy, around the 1450 to 1600, the rebirth of classical Greek and Roman characteristics in art led to the studies of the human anatomy. The practice of dissecting the human body was banned for many centuries due to the belief that body and soul was inseparable. It wasn’t until the election of Pope Boniface VII that the practice of dissection was once again allowed for observation.[2][3] Many painters and artists documented and even performed the dissections themselves by taking careful observations of the human body. Among them were Leonardo da Vinci and Andreae Vesalius, two of the most influential artists in anatomical illustrations.[4] Leonardo da Vinci, in particular, was very detailed in his studies that he was known as the “artist-anatomist” for the creation of a new science and the creative depiction to anatomy. Leonardo’s anatomical studies contributed to artistic exploration of the movement of the muscles, joints and bones. His goal was to analyze and understand the instruments behind the postures and gestures in the human body.[5]

17th – 19th centuries[edit]

The study of anatomical figures became popular among the medical academies across Europe around the 17th and 18th century, especially when there was a lack of bodies available for dissections.[4] Medical students relied on these figures because they provided a good representation of what the anatomical model looks like. The écorché (flayed) figures were made to look like the skin was removed from the body, exposing the muscles and vessels of the model. Some figures were created to strip away the layers of muscles and reveal the skeleton of the model. Many of the life-size scale écorché figures were reproduced in a smaller scale out of bronze that can be easily distributed.[6]

Écorché figures were commonly made out of many different materials: bronze, ivory, plaster, wax, or wood. By the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, wax was the most popular use of material in creating écorché statues. The production of colored wax anatomies allowed for a variety of hues and tone that makes the models appear realistic.[7]


  1. ^ Écorché defined at artlex.com
  2. ^ Lemire, M (1 December 1992). "Representation of the human body: the colored wax anatomic models of the 18th and 19th centuries in the revival of medical instruction". Surgical and Radiologic Anatomy 14 (4): 283–291. doi:10.1007/BF01794751. Retrieved 3 April 2013. 
  3. ^ Ginn, Sheryl R.; Lorusso, Lorenzo (16 July 2008). "Brain, Mind, and Body: Interactions with Art in Renaissance Italy". Journal of the History of the Neurosciences 17 (3): 295–313. doi:10.1080/09647040701575900. 
  4. ^ a b Wallace, Martin Kemp, Marina (2001). Spectacular bodies : the art and science of the human body from Leonardo to now. London: Hayward Gallery. pp. 22–90. ISBN 0520227921. 
  5. ^ Keele, Kenneth D. (October 1964). "Leonardo Da Vinci's Influence on Renaissance Anatomy". Medical History 8 (4): 360–370. doi:10.1017/s0025727300029835. Retrieved 3 April 2013. 
  6. ^ Owen, Harry (1 April 2012). "Early Use of Simulation in Medical Education". Simulation in Healthcare: The Journal of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare 7 (2): 102–116. doi:10.1097/SIH.0b013e3182415a91. 
  7. ^ DARLINGTON, ANNE (1 December 1986). "The Teaching of Anatomy and the Royal Academy of Arts 1768-1782". Journal of Art & Design Education 5 (3): 263–271. doi:10.1111/j.1476-8070.1986.tb00207.x. 

External links[edit]

Media related to Écorché at Wikimedia Commons