Sheet of Studies [recto]

probably 1470/1480

Leonardo da Vinci

Artist, Florentine, 1452 - 1519

Five sketches in brown ink are spaced around a vertically oriented sheet of paper. In the top left quadrant, a bearded man faces our right in profile. He has short, curly hair, a deeply lined face, a pronounced underbite, and the tip of his long nose points down. Two independent, wrinkle-lined eyes are sketched in the top right quadrant of the page. Below are two drawings of women with their shoulders angled away from us to the right. Near the bottom left and smaller in scale, a woman looks over her shoulder at us with a slight smile on her lips. In the bottom right quadrant, a woman with her hair pulled back under a snood looks to our right in profile with her chin tipped up. The neckline of both women’s bodices dip across the shoulder blades in the back. The paper is speckled with faint brown stains and spots.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    pen and brown ink over leadpoint with blind stylus on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    The Armand Hammer Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 16.4 x 13.9 cm (6 7/16 x 5 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1991.217.2.a

Associated Artworks

A woman wearing a mantle, which drapes over her head and shoulders, and holding her hands together in prayer is lightly sketched in black chalk in this vertical drawing. Her body is angled to our left. Her head tips in that direction, and she looks off into the distance. Forms to the left of the woman are studies of a man’s torso and a muscular leg. The sketches are all faintly drawn on paper that now has some brown speckling.

Study of a Madonna [verso]

Leonardo da Vinci

1470

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Albert M. Shapiro, Berkeley, 1972; Private collection, New York; (P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., Ltd., London); to Armand Hammer Collection, 1972; gift to NGA in 1991.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1972

  • Exhibited with the Armand Hammer collection from 1972, beginning with The Royal Academy of Arts, London.

1974

  • Recent Acquisitions and Promised Gifts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1974, no. 65.

1976

  • Old Master Drawings from American Collections, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1976.

1978

  • Master Drawings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art and Promised Gifts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978, p. 32.

1981

  • Leonardo da Vinci, The Codex Hammer, formerly The Codex Leicester, Royal Academy of Arts, London, and other venues, 1981-1982, 47, 122, as "Hammer 20."

1982

  • Leonardo da Vinci, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden, 1982-1983.

1983

  • Exhibited with the Leonardo da Vinci Codex Hammer, beginning with Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, 1983, and ending with Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, 1986.

1984

  • Rejoined tour with the Armand Hammer collection for 1 venue: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984.

1985

  • Leonardo: il Codice Hammer e la Mappa di Imola presentati da Carlo Pedretti. Arte e Scienza a Bologna in Emilia e Romagno nel Primo Cinquecento, 1985, Palazzo del Podestà, Bologna, 63, color pl. VIII.

1988

  • Italian Renaissance Drawings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1988, no cat.

2003

  • Leonardo da Vinci, Master Draftsman, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2003, no. 24.

2019

  • Leonardo da Vinci: L'uomo modello del mondo. Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice, 2019, no. 1.

Bibliography

1980

  • Keele, Kenneth D. and Carlo Pedretti. Leonardo da Vinci, Corpus of the Anatomical Studies in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen.... London and New York, 1980, 841, 859 (under 126), 890-891 (under 199v), figs. 148, 149 (verso as not by Leonardo).

1982

  • Pedretti, Carlo, ed. The Drawings and Miscellaneous Papers of Leonardo da Vinci in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle. New York and London, 1982, I: 107, fig. 82 (c. 1508).

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 662, no. 1045, color repro. of the recto.

1987

  • Pedretti, Carlo. The Codex Hammer of Leonardo da Vinci. Florence, 1987: 167-172, figs. 35-39.

1990

  • Caroli, Flavio. Leonardo, Studi di fisiognomica, Milan, 1990, 207, no. 20r reproduces a detail of the recto (misidentified as part of the Codex Hammer).

1993

  • Pedretti, Carlo, and Trutty-Coohill, Patricia. The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci and His Circle in America. Florence, 1993: 9, 15, 50-52, 105, 111, no. 15.

2001

  • Mittler, Gene A. and James D. Howze. Creating and Understanding Drawings. New York, 2001: 213, fig. 11.11.

Watermarks

Tulip (close to Briquet, nos. 6645-59)

Wikidata ID

Q64592974

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