Two Deformed Heads Facing Inwards
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 3 1/4 × 4 1/2 in. (8.3 × 11.4 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Barbara E. Fox, from the Collection of Howard A. Fox, MD, and Barbara E. Fox, 2022
Accession Number
2022.131.2
Art Historical Context
Behold *Two Deformed Heads Facingwards*, a striking etching that bridges Renaissance curiosity and 17th-century printmaking mastery. Created in 1645 by Wenceslaus Hollar after studies by Leonardo da Vinci, this intimate print (3 1/ × 4 12 in.) captures two grotesque, inward-facing heads, echoing Leonardo's fascination with human anatomy and expression during the Italian Renaissance. Da Vinci, ever the observer of nature's extremes, sketched such deformities to explore the body's variations, blending scientific inquiry with artistic invention. Hollar, a Bohemian etcher renowned for reproducing...
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...