Studies for the Christ Child with a Lamb (recto); Head of an Old Man, and Studies of Machinery (verso)

about 1503–1506

Medium

Black chalk, pen and brown ink

Dimensions

21 × 14.1 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-201942

Leonardo da Vinci did not finish many paintings, but he filled thousands of notebook pages with quick sketches, designs, plans, maps, and detailed anatomical drawings throughout his life. Often these pages contained a scattering of sketches on numerous unrelated projects, seemingly the contents of Leonardo’s thoughts poured onto the page. This sheet includes studies for a child with a lamb (on the *recto*, or front) and studies of machinery (on the *verso*, or back, or reverse), among other sketches. With limited formal schooling, Leonardo learned through close observation and an insatiable curiosity about how things worked. Between 1503 and 1506, Leonardo used black chalk, pen and ink to draw a child and a lamb multiple times, trying out different poses for the figures. He began with many quick sketches in chalk. He then went over some of these in pen and ink, firming up his ideas, as at upper right. The most evolved study is that at center left, in which the child leans back on the lamb, the group rendered more completely in space. Sheets of drawings such as this allowed Renaissance artists to experiment with complex compositions, poses, gestures, and expressions before com…