Four Heads (from Characaturas by Leonardo da Vinci, from Drawings by Wincelslaus Hollar, out of the Portland Museum)
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Plate: 7 11/16 x 6 5/16 in. (19.5 x 16 cm) Sheet: 7 7/8 x 6 7/16 in. (20 x 16.4 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1953
Accession Number
53.600.3191
Tags
Art Historical Context
"Four Heads," an etching from 1786, captures the whimsical grotesques attributed to Leonardo da Vinci'sCharacaturas," reproduced from drawings by the masterful 17th-century engraver Wenceslaus Hollar and sourced from the esteemed Portland Museum collection. Printed by John Clarke, this intimate plate (7 11/16 x 6 5/16 inches) showcases four expressive profile heads—likely caricatured studies of human features—highlighting Leonardo's fascination with anatomy and exaggeration. These profiles blend portrait-like precision with playful distortion, reflecting Renaissance interests in physiognomy an...
About the Artist
John Clarke|Wenceslaus Hollar|Leonardo da Vinci (British|Bohemian|Italian) · 1756 |1607 |1452 –1815 |1677 |1519
British, 1756–1815|Bohemian, Prague 1607–1677 London|Italian, Vinci 1452–1519 Amboise