Crucified Man

In this print Danish artist Melchior Lorck isolated the figure of the Old Testament villain Haman from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling. Lorck may have seen it in person, or in a print or drawing. He rendered the musculature and outline carefully, but less successful were his grasp of the figure’s foreshortening (the rendering of a figure in perspective), and the proportions of the body in relation to the head. Artists working outside Italy around 1550 still did not generally sketch from live models, nor did they directly study anatomy, which may explain Lorck’s awkward reconciliation of the form.