A nude man standing facing the spectator, with his legs apart and his arms hanging down at his sides. His left hand holds a stick. This is a study of the male form made around the time that Leonardo was working on his mural of the Battle of Anghiari. The drawings were studies in contour as well as surface modelling, and Leonardo repeatedly went over the outlines with pen and ink. This may have been made necessary by Leonardo's use of red prepared paper for red chalk drawings, which limited the tonal range. Text adapted from 'Leonardo da Vinci: the Divine and the Grotesque'