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Audio Guide
Leonardo da Vinci, Master Draftsman
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Head of the Virgin in Three-Quarter View Facing to the Right. Leonardo da Vinci (Vinci, 1452–Cloux, 1519). Soft black and red chalks; traces of framing outline in pen and brown ink at upper right (not by Leonardo); 203 x 156 mm (8 x 6 1/8 in.). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1951 (51.90). (Cat. no. 108).
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Philippe de Montebello
In this exquisite study of a woman's face, Leonardo has begun using soft colors for drawing. He uses red chalk for the underdrawing, then shades over it in black chalk.
Carmen Bambach
It's hard to believe that this incredibly beautiful drawing has sometimes been doubted by scholars as being by Leonardo, possibly because its magical beauty renders it suspicious. And possibly, it's also maintained that Leonardo's pupils could at times out-Leonardo the master himself. But most importantly, the technical research that was undertaken in connection with this show reveals, fairly conclusively, that there is evidence of Leonardo's left-handed strokes, both on the top layer of the drawing—in the charcoal layer, soft black chalk layer—in the forehead, the strokes go from the lower right to the upper left; and then, examination with a microscope shows the short, left-handed strokes in the red chalk underdrawing. No imitator could have gotten to the layer of the underdrawing to create these left-handed strokes. And so clearly we're dealing with one of the most ineffably beautiful drawings that Leonardo ever produced.
Philippe de Montebello
This drawing also shows what refinement Leonardo brought to the technique of shading forms pioneered by his teacher, Verrocchio. Leonardo described it as "sfumato": shadows like smoke. After applying the chalk, he blended it with his fingertips or a piece of cloth, making the transitions from dark to light utterly seamless. Sfumato gently obscures the boundaries of the facial features, suggesting a slight mobility, like the breath of life.
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