Leonardo Drawings

Leonardo da Vinci

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780486136295
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Artist Monographs

Although Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest artists who ever lived, his career was marked by an unusually large number of uncompleted projects and by finished works that rapidly deteriorated. Nevertheless, his influence is undoubted, and his claim to greatness rests chiefly on his drawings, which have been carefully preserved in such locations as Windsor Castle, the Louvre, the Uffizi Gallery, and the British Museum.
This collection, excellently reproduced in black-and-white, is representative of Leonardo's various achievements in many drawing media. Among the selections are drawings of plants, landscapes, animals, battles, weapons, and the human face and figure, as well as studies for later paintings or sculpture: a full compositional study for The Adoration of the Magi, a study for the angel's head in The Virgin of the Rocks, studies of horses for the Sforza monument, studies for The Last Supper, studies for The Battle of Anghiari, and an early cartoon for The Madonna with St. Anne.

Table of Contents

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1. Lanscape; inscribed: “of St.Mary of the Snow, August 5, 1473” (earlies dated Leonardo drawing). Pen. 195 × 285 mm. Florence, Uffizi.

2. Studies of expressions in men, women, children and animals; sketch for a Madonna with the Child St. John. Ca. 1475. Pen. Royal Library, Windsor Castle.

3. Profile of a young woman. Ca. 1475. Pen, heightened with white. Apparently a drawing for the Louvre Annunciation (although some scholars believe that Leonardo did neither the drawing nor the painting). Florence, Uffizi.

4. Head of an old man and profile of a youth. The inscription mentions a date late in 1478. Pen. Florence, Uffizi.

5. Madonna with a fruit dish. Ca. 1480. Silverpoint and pen. 350 × 250 mm. Paris, Louvre.

6. Study of drapery. Ca. 1480 (but it has also been associated with the later Madonna with St. Anne). Black crayon and bistre wash, heightened with white. 230 × 245 mm. Paris, Louvre.

7. Study of drapery. Ca. 1480 (date disputed). Bistre, heightened with white, on canvas. 265 × 235 mm. Paris, Louvre.

8. Sketch for a Madonna with Cat. Ca. 1480. Pen and wash. 125 × 105 mm. Florence, Uffizi.

9. Studies for a Madonna with Cat. Ca. 1480. Pen. London, British Museum.

10. Hanged man; has been identified as Baroncelli, the assassin of Giuliano de’ Medici (hanged 1478), and as Bernardo di Bandino (hanged 1479). Pen. 190 × 70 mm. Bayonne, Musée Bonnat.

11. A condottiere in fanciful armor; said to have been suggested by a figure in Verrocchio’s Beheading of St. John the Baptist. Ca. 1480. Silverpoint. 215 × 150 mm. London, British Museum.

12. Shoulder-length studies of a woman. Ca. 1480. Silverpoint. Royal Library, Windsor Castle.

13. Female figure (Victory?) placing a shield on a trophy. Ca. 1480–81. Pen and brown wash over a stylus drawing. 255 × 205 mm. London, British Museum.

14. Studies...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents