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Home | Exhibitions | Barocci: A lesson in drawing | Barocci Drawings: Types of drawingsThe purpose of this type of drawing was the general understanding of the structure of human anatomy within a specific composition. Leonardo became the master of this practice by pursuing his scientific interest, studying real human corpses, particularly whilst he was in Milan in the late 1480s and 1490s. Not many artists in the following century continued this example, preferring to make studies from life. The abundance of surviving anatomical studies for arms, legs, fingers and feet by Barocci, demonstrates his obsessive attention to every detail of his figures. However it is curious to notice how, after having spent such a long time studying every single element of the composition, Barocci more than other painters, often altered his plan when setting paint to canvas. Although his figures are grounded in life study, he moved away from a descriptive naturalism in favour of a graceful idealism.