Head of a Woman

Leonardo Vinci, da (after)

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci. The drawing is of the head of a woman in profile, facing to the right. She is wearing a cap on the back of her head, and some wavy hair falls down the side of her face. The woman's shoulders and chest are lightly sketched. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "3. LEONARDO DA VINCI (b. 1452; d. 1519) HEAD OF A WOMAN Royal Library, Windsor Castle. Silver point on pale pinkish ground, 32.5 x 20 cm. (12 3/4 x 7 7/8 in.). The head, held exactly erect and exactly in profile, recalls the typical portrait of the quattrocento. The body turned to the front, rapidly sketched in, gives the impression of having been added to correct the severity of the unrelieved profile, not with entire success. The drawing, which appears to belong to the beginning of the artist's Milanese period, is obviously, as far as the head is concerned, a study from life, finished with the firmness and precision, and at the same time the delicacy and verve characteristic of the supreme draughtsman. A. E. P. [B. Berenson, Florentine Drawings, 1903, I. p. 160; II. p. 64, No. 1154, pl. CXIII. W. von Seidlitz, Leonardo da Vinci, I, p. 291. Eugène Müntz, Leonardo da Vinci, Vol. I, p. 4.]"