Pelvis Structure Tracings

Name: The Creation of Adam

Artist: Michelangelo

Medium: Fresco

Location/Time: Sistine Chapel Ceiling, Rome, c.1511

Name: Fighting Men

Artist: Raphael Sanzi

Medium: Red Chalk over leadpoint

Location/Time: Italy, 1510-1511

This first tracing is taken from "Fighting Men" and is of the reaching figure on the far right side. At first glance, the iliac crest and anterior iliac spine are the most visible parts of the pelvis in this drawing. The gluteal cleft and fold are also clearly defined by the artist and you can see the coming together of the muscles (glutes) down to the symphysis pubis. I drew in the sacrum, although it is buried under a hunk of muscle, by folowing the curves in the muscles which make that triangle shape. I had to imagine it a little bit but using the triangular shape made by the glutes and back of the figure helped me to draw it in.

The second tracing is somewhat a front and foreshortened view, and comes from the work "The Creation of Adam". From doing the drawings of the pelvis in class, I was able to imagine where the pelvis would be, because the pelvis was not as easily revealed as it was in "Fighting Men". First I figured out where the posterior and anterior points were on the iliac spine, and from there I drew a triangular form. Unlike the other tracing, in this one I was able to see and label the inguinal ligaments, which were easily visible in Michelangelo's figure of Adam. Because this was a frontal view, I did not label the sacrum or anterior inferior iliac spine.