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This information may change as the result of ongoing research.
* This information may change as the result of ongoing research.
Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, Vinci 1452 - 1519 Clos-Lucé [Cloux; near Amboise])
Designs for a Nativity or Adoration of the Christ Child; Perspectival Projection (recto); Slight Doodles (verso)
1480–1485
Silverpoint, partly reworked with pen and dark brown ink on pink prepared paper; lines ruled with metalpoint (recto); pen and brown ink (verso)
7-5/8 x 6-3/8 in. (19.3 x 16.2 cm)
Drawing
Rogers Fund, 1917
17.142.1
In these dazzling sketches of the Virgin kneeling in humility before the Christ Child, who lies on the ground, Leonardo investigated a theme that he would also use in the Virgin of the Rocks (Musée du Louvre, Paris; and National Gallery, London), in which the Virgin kneels facing the spectator, her right hand raised in blessing over the seated Infant Jesus. The composition in the center is closest to the Virgin of the Rocks. These sketches, however, seem more closely related to an undocumented painting from around 1483-85 by Leonardo that must have been brought at least to the stage of a complete cartoon (full-scale drawing); several contemporary painted copies of this composition survive. Leonardo explored a number of solutions to the same theme on the sheet with dazzling fluency. He used the traditional fifteenth-century medium of metalpoint but reinforced the shadows with pen and ink for a deeper tonal contrast. The geometric constructions at the lower right represent his attempts to work out the perspective within the composition, with respect to the spectator's vantage point.