LEONARDO

105. Studies for the Christ Child (recto) Slight Diagramatic Sketches (verso)

Red chalk, brush and red wash (head at center), small traces of Pedretti and Clark :1983, p. 46, fig. 35, p. 5:1; Marani :1987a, p. 240, white gouache highlights over traces of stylus, on ocher-red pre­ fig. 16;; Kemp :199:1, p. 37; Martin Clayton in Palazzo Grassi :1992, pared paper (recto); pen and brown ink (verso), 285 x 198 mm pp. 250-5:1, nos. 25-25a; Popham 1994- no. :185; Caroline Lanfranc 1 (n% x 7 :Y16 in.) de Pan thou in Musee Conde :1995, pp. 94-95, no. 23; Tordella 1995, Inscribed in red chalk on recto, in right-to-left script, toward cen­ p. 4:15; Arasse :1998, pp. 452-55, fig. 3:13; Annalisa Perissa Torrini in ter of upper border: anbroso; in pen and black ink toward lower Nepi Scire and Torrini 1999, pp. 92-95, no. 28. right, by a later hand: di Leonardo; on verso in pen and brown ink, by the artist in right-to-left script, toward bottom of sheet: Se io so co[n] certezza lospatio che e dal [pun to] e fall o[g]chio. g. che his delicately rendered sheet in red chalk on ocher-red qui lometto 1500 miglia I Ia qua{n]tita c d che meincognita p[er] Tprepared paper offers several studies of gradually magnitudine e p{er] distantia m[iglia] 10 Ia misuro tal I quale elle increased scale for the figure of the infant Jesus as he is repre­ e poi Ia re movo quella medesima unaltro spatio incognito e I I sented in the extant Louvre painting of the Virgin and Child c[i]oe in a b, e lla trovo diminuta e 4l5 della prima qua{n]to giu­ dichero io ch ella I sia piu remota dallochio che essa p[rima] in with Saint Anne and a Lamb (fig. 23). The red-on-red draw­ questa regola io cerco colla prima I notitia acquisstare Ia notitia ing technique helps date the drawing to about 1508-10. della distantia e gra[n]dezza dun corpo c[i]oe del sole I Adu[n]que The note and diagrammatic sketches on the verso help confirm mjsura prima lospatio dunora qua[nt]e elle piu propi{n]quo e poi this date, for they pertain to the proportional measurement mjsura /ultima I ora qua{n]t elle e piu remoto e tal quale e il of distances (as, for example, the distance between the eye ma{n]came{n]to tal sara lecesso della remotiol[ne] and the sun), which suggests an analogy of purpose to the Gallerie deii'Accademia, Venice 257 early pages of the illustrated here (cat. no.114). PROVENANCE: Cardinal Cesare Monti, (:r635-5o); Contessa On the recto of the Venice sheet, the red-on-red drawing Anna Luisa Monti, Milan; 1770, Venanzio De Pagave, Milan; his technique reduces the contrast between form and ground tone, son Gaudenzio De Pagave; ca. 1808 or before, Giuseppe Bossi, Milan and Venice (1777-1815; album marked K); auction, Milan, and seems therefore especially apt for the Christ Child's February :1818, II; February 24, 1818, purchase by Abbate Luigi figure, which appears in a penumbra of intermediate shadow Celotti [Cellotti], Venice (:176s-:r846); in deposit (under custody in the final painting, except for the concentrated highlights on of and Nicola Cassani) Accademia di Belle Arti, Milan; the forehead, cheek, right shoulder, and arm. Leonardo seems :1820-22, proposal of purchase of Bossi's collection from Celotti to have first drawn the smaller study of the child on the upper submitted to Austrian government on behalf of Accademia delle right of the sheet. The virtually nude child model is here Belle Arti, Venice; 1822, purchase by Franz I (Habsburg), emperor posed holding a curved stick-a frequent prop in life draw­ of Austria, Florence and (:1768-:r835), for Accademia delle Belle Arti, Venice; ca. :1832, manuscript inventory; December 3:1, ings of the period-substituting for the lamb in the painting, 1870, manuscript inventory; museum stamp (Lugt 188). but the details of his face and hands are still relatively undefined. The right side of the child's head in this study LITERATURE: Gerli 1784, pl. 8 (inscribed as no. 9; inverts the top and bottom halves of the sheet in the reproduction); Selvatico :1854, exhibits the use of a purpler red chalk (next to the lighter, frame 6, no. 2; Uzielli :1884, p. 280, no. 27; Venturi 1896, p. 44; more orange chalk), as do some of the shadows in the body, Berenson 1903, vol. 2, p. 62, no. :1264 (as imitation of Leonardo); suggesting the extent of Leonardo's experiments with tonal Loeser :1903b, p. :183; Fogolari :1913, no. 20; Berenson 1938, vol.1, refinement. (The parallel hatching is left-handed in the pas­ p. :r68, vol. 2, p. :123, vol. 3, p. 563, no. no9A; Heydenreich 1949, pl. 28; sages of "orange" and "purple" red chalk.) In the larger study Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana 1952, p. 36, no. 51; Berenson 1961, on the upper left Leonardo maintained the general design of vol. :1, pp. 247-48, vol. 2, p. 217, no. uo9A; Cogliati Arano :1966-67, pp. 37-38, no. 37, figs. 43-44 (Cesare da Sesto); Cogliati Arano the pose but began to soften and idealize the leaning angle of :1980, pp. 67-69, no. 30 (as Cesare da Sesto [?],Ambrogio de' Predis the infant's body in a manner that seems closer to the final [?]);Pedretti 1982c, p. 23, figs. :17,23, 24; Pedretti :1982a, p. 78; painting. The study of the torso toward the center of the right

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