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LEONARDO DA VINCI (VINCI 1452-AMBOISE 1519)

A study of a woman's hands

c.1490

RCIN 912558

A study of a woman's hands folded over her breast. The right hand is holding an object between the finger and thumb. Below is a study of folded hands. In the upper right area there is a slight sketch of a grotesque head in profile to the right. This beautiful drawing comprises two separate studies of crossed hands, each concentrating on one hand only. It may have been a study for Leonardo’s small portrait of a Lady with an ermine in Krakow, Poland. The sitter’s attitude in the painting is highly original; although the hands in the drawing do not correspond in pose with those in the painting, they are identical in type, long, slender and elegant, and it is possible that the drawing was a first study for the portrait.
  • stamp, ER VII, crowned, in oval: Lugt 901


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