Compositional Sketches for the Virgin Adoring the Christ Child, with and without the Infant St. John the Baptist; Diagram of a Perspectival Projection (recto); Slight Doodles (verso)
1480–85
Medium
Silverpoint, partly reworked by the artist with pen and dark brown ink on pink prepared paper; lines ruled with metalpoint (recto); pen and brown ink (verso)
Dimensions
7 5/8 x 6 3/8 in. (19.3 x 16.2 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1917
Accession Number
17.142.1
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate silverpoint drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, created between 1480 and 1485, captures the artist’s early explorations of one of the Renaissance’s most subjects: the Virgin Mary adoring the Christ Child. On the recto, Leonardo experiments with multiple compositional arrangements, including variations that feature or omit the infant Saint John the Baptist. These intimate studies reveal his careful attention to the tender gestures and spatial relationships between mother and child. The work’s technical sophistication is equally compelling. Leonardo used silverpoint on pink prepared pap...
About the Artist
Leonardo da Vinci · 1452–1519
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) stands as the quintessential Renaissance polymath, whose genius spanned painting, sculpture, architecture, science, mathematics, engineering, anatomy, geology, cartography, botany, and writing. Born in Vinci, Italy, as the illegitimate son of a notary, Leonardo received limited formal education but demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent from an early age. His appr...