BOLTRAFFIO, Giovanni Antonio
(b. ca. 1467, Milano, d. 1516, Milano)

Study of Drapery

c. 1490
Metalpoint with touches of white on blue prepared paper, 285 x 213 mm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin

Boltraffio's drawings in the 1490s are demonstrations of a pure Leonardesque idiom. This silverpoint drawing was executed in the exacting technique that Leonardo had imported from Florence. It is a study for the drapery of the Virgin in the Madonna Litta, a much discussed work, designed by Leonardo and executed under his supervision by one of his close followers, most probably by Boltraffio.