The head of a youth

A drawing of the head and shoulders of a boy, his head turned in profile to the left. He has heavy regular features, and curly hair. Melzi's number 26. Early in his career Leonardo fixed on two standard male types, who thereafter recur repeatedly in his drawings and paintings: an adolescent with refined features, and an older man with aquiline nose, prominent chin and beetling brow. In the last decade of his life he produced a number of independent drawings of such heads, exercises in form and draughtsmanship simply for his own satisfaction. Like many of Leonardo's bust-length studies, the shoulders of the youth here (clad in a low-cut gathered chemise) are turned in three-quarters view while his head remains in strict profile. The profile type is that of the Roman Emperor Nero transmitted to the Renaissance through coins and medals. Text adapted from Leonardo da Vinci: A life in Drawing, London, 2018