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This extraordinary piece lies at the heart of the Torrie Collection. It portrays the flayed figure of a horse and is thought to have come from the studio of Giambologna; the most influential sculptor in Europe after Michelangelo. The sculpture captures the quest of Renaissance artists to understand the mechanics of the body ‘under the skin’. A clear visual relationship exists between the sculpture and woodcuts printed in the first published thesis on equine anatomy; Carlo Ruini’s 'Anatomia del Cavallo' (1598). The sculpture almost certainly informed the illustrations, testifying to the astonishing anatomical detail.