Two Deformed Heads Facing Inwards
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 5/8 × 2 15/16 in. (11.7 × 7.5 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
2022.131.6
Art Historical Context
"Two Deformed Heads Facingwards" is a captivating etching by Wenceslaus Hollar, created around 1645, faithfully reproducing studies attributed to Leonardo da Vinci.lar, a masterful Bohemian printmaker active in 17th-century England, renowned for his meticulous reproductive etchings that brought Renaissance masterpieces to wider audiences. This intimate sheet, measuring just 4 5/8 × 2 15/16 inches, captures Leonardo's fascination with grotesque and pathological forms—two contorted heads pressed inward, their exaggerated features evoking raw human expression and anatomical curiosity. Leonardo's...
About the Artist
Wenceslaus Hollar|Leonardo da Vinci · 1607–1677
Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677) was a prolific Bohemian etcher who became one of the most accomplished printmakers of the seventeenth century. Born in Prague, he trained under Matthäus Merian in Frankfurt before entering the service of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, in 1636. Hollar spent most of his career in England, where he produced approximately 2,740 etchings documenting an extraordinary range...