Compositional Sketches of the Virgin and Christ Child

A pink-toned sheet of studies in fine silverpoint and brown ink shows the Virgin and Child in several poses, some set within arched niches. Figures include a seated mother with a small child, a standing woman leaning toward a playful infant, and faint sketches of drapery and hands below.

Artist

Leonardo da Vinci

Date

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

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

1430 × 1692 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1917