The Head of the Virgin in Three-Quarter View Facing Right 1510 - 1513

Curator: This charcoal drawing is entitled “The Head of the Virgin in Three-Quarter View Facing Right,” rendered by Leonardo da Vinci between 1510 and 1513. It resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: The face is like dusk—soft shadows, everything muted, pensive, and inwardly turned. Almost makes me want to whisper in the gallery! Curator: The composition certainly draws the viewer into her private world. The downward gaze suggests humility, perhaps even a premonition of sorrow. The sfumato technique is prominent; it creates an almost dreamlike haziness, which in turn encourages emotional introspection. Note the light catching the delicate curve of her cheek and how that contour softly vanishes, implying more than it declares. Editor: Yes, I get that dream state quality. Her very texture feels ambiguous: not quite there and still, incredibly present. Considering it's charcoal on paper, da Vinci achieved such dimensionality with the simplest of materials! One can only imagine his intent. Was this an exploration for a painting, or something unto itself? Curator: Scholarship suggests it was preparatory, very likely related to "Saint Anne, the Virgin, and Child". Da Vinci's drawings weren't mere outlines but complex tonal studies that helped him resolve the figures’ forms and relationships within the planned painting. Also, it isn't just charcoal. There are subtle touches of red chalk, perhaps to warm the complexion, add vitality to the drawing. Editor: Ah, it does make a world of difference. A ghost of blush infuses something akin to life into this drawing, beyond the preparatory sketch for "Saint Anne…" While formalistically analyzed, the work breathes so much as to seem immortal. I daresay the artist himself succeeded. Curator: Indeed, it’s as if she waits in perpetual observation of what the world would be centuries on. She would not have been let down.