Flayed Man or Ecorché au bras tendu
by HOUDON, Jean-Antoine, Plaster
A commission for a statue of St John the Baptist for Santa Maria degli Angeli (plaster; Rome, Galleria Borghese) was the occasion for the production of Houdon’s famous statue of a Flayed Man or Ecorch� au bras tendu (plaster version, Schloss Friedenstein, Gotha; later and modified bronze version, �cole Nationale Sup�rieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris). It bears witness to Houdon’s other great source of inspiration - study from nature.