Head of a Young Girl
Red-chalk study on prepared paper; Leonardo and workshop, ca. 1510
A red-chalk study, drawn on orange-toned prepared paper, of a young girl's head inclined gently downward with lowered eyes and softly waved hair falling from a close cap. The institution's catalogue lists the sheet as "Testa di fanciulla," dated ca. 1510 and attributed to Leonardo da Vinci with assistants. The sheet bears no text.
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Downcast head of a young girl
The girl's head tilts forward and to her right, the eyes half-closed and cast down in a meditative expression. Loose, curling hair frames the cheeks and falls to the shoulders below a smooth cap, and the features are modelled in delicate light and shade against the warm ground. Only the head and the suggestion of the shoulders are drawn.