Loading

A mountainous landscape

Leonardo da Vincic.1506-10

Royal Collection Trust, UK

Royal Collection Trust, UK
London, United Kingdom

A drawing of a landscape in which mountains rise from a plain, grassy and wooded below, rocky and precipitous above. Through the plain on the right runs a river. Melzi's number 138. This is a tightly controlled depiction of an imaginary mountainous landscape. The jagged spires of rock rising from rounded hills are seen in the right background of the cartoon for The Madonna and Child with St Anne and the Infant Baptist (London, National Gallery) to which this drawing is close in date, while the plain rising between the peaks to the right is reminiscent of the landscapes of Mona Lisa and the painted St Anne. The structure here is relatively simple, whereas in those late paintings the chains of mountains recede one after another until they are enveloped by the distant atmosphere. See also RCIN 912407, 912409. Text adapted from Leonardo da Vinci: A life in drawing, London, 2018

Show lessRead more
  • Title: A mountainous landscape
  • Creator: Leonardo da Vinci
  • Date Created: c.1506-10
  • Physical Dimensions: 8.7 x 15.1 cm
  • Provenance: Bequeathed to Francesco Melzi; from whose heirs purchased by Pompeo Leoni, c.1582-90; Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel, by 1630; probably acquired by Charles II; Royal Collection by 1690
  • Type: Drawing
  • Rights: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019
  • External Link: Royal Collection Trust website
  • Medium: Red chalk
Royal Collection Trust, UK

Get the app

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Home
Discover
Play
Nearby
Favorites