LEONARDO DA VINCI (VINCI 1452-AMBOISE 1519)
The head of St James, and architectural sketches
c.1495RCIN 912552
A study of the head of a youth looking down, turned three quarters to the left, with wavy hair and parted lips. The shoulders are only slightly indicated. This is a study for St James in the Last Supper, refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. Below are three studies of a corner bastion developed into a domed building, and a small plan of the same.
The rapidity of the sketch suggests that this is Leonardo's only surviving Last Supper study to have been drawn from the life. The four architectural sketches were added after the figure drawing, and confirm the status of the sheet as an informal working study.
Text adapted from 'Leonardo da Vinci: the Divine and the Grotesque'
watermark: 8-lobed flower (cut). Close to Briquet 6560 (1475). [-]