Grotesque head of old woman

Etching, ca. 1720/30, signed in plate with monogram M and numbered 4 at upper left.

From a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci.

This is one of Leonardo's famous studies of human physiognomy.

Leonardo's pen sketch depicts a female subject in profile, very ungainly. The image of the elderly woman features wrinkled skin, a hooked nose, an obvious receding hairline, a hunched back, and other details amplified almost surrealistically.

These studies made by Leonardo had a great influence on European art in the following centuries, later laying the foundation for what we know today to be the art of caricature.

Beautiful proof, printed on contemporary laid virgin paper, with margins, in very good condition.