A standing flayed man, raising his right arm (Villa Medici plaster version) - Houdon

First prize for sculpture in 1761, Jean-Antoine Houdon was a resident at Villa Medici from 1764 to 1768.
Working on a large-scale Saint John the Baptist for the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, he produced a highly detailed sculptural anatomical study. Charles Natoire, director of the Académie, asked him to make a mold of it to serve as a model for the other boarders. Houdon attended classes with the surgeon Séguier at the Saint-Louis-des-français infirmary.