Two deformed heads
Medium
Engraving, only state
Dimensions
Sheet: 3 11/16 × 6 9/16 in. (9.4 × 16.7 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1917
Accession Number
17.50.18-211
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, *Two Deformed Heads* (1645–50) showcases a fascinating collaboration across centuries. This rare engraving, the only known state, reproduces Leonardo da Vinci's meticulous Renaissance sketches of grotesque human heads, captured by the masterful 17th-century Bohemian artist Wenceslaus Hollar. Measuring just 3 11/16 × 6 9/16 inches, the intimate sheet invites close inspection, revealing Leonardo's probing gaze into human anatomy and pathology. Leonardo, the quintessential Renaissance polymath, obsessively studied the body—norma...
About the Artist
Leonardo da Vinci|Wenceslaus Hollar · 1452–1519
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) stands as the quintessential Renaissance polymath, whose genius spanned painting, sculpture, architecture, science, mathematics, engineering, anatomy, geology, cartography, botany, and writing. Born in Vinci, Italy, as the illegitimate son of a notary, Leonardo received limited formal education but demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent from an early age. His appr...