LEONARDO da Vinci
(b. 1452, Vinci, d. 1519, Cloux, near Amboise)

Head of a Man Facing to the Left

1490-94
Pen and brown ink over charcoal, 120 x 50 mm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

With few exceptions, Leonardo's many head studies are not portraits of individuals but rather representations of types. The present drawing is an example of one such type which occurs in a number of his drawings - the once heroic, now aging, mature man. The irregular contours indicate that the sheet has been cut down and is possibly fragmentary.