Date 1510–13 Genre religious art Artist's movement Renaissance , High Renaissance Country Italy Medium Black chalk, charcoal, and red chalk, with some traces of white chalk (?); some remains of framing lines in pen and brown ink at upper right (not by Leonardo) Terms black chalk 300080058 charcoal 300012862 red chalk 300080064 Dimensions Sheet: 8 x 6 1/8 in. (20.3 x 15.6 cm) Collection Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY 51.90 Classifications read from Wikidata, 2026-08-28
Getty ids beside the museum's words, by exact match, 2026-09-09
Means Each reading names its framework and its evidence. A student or an editor proposes it, and it stands once it is signed.
Freud: psychoanalytic biography The reading of a life through its works and its earliest memories, as Freud gives it in the Leonardo study of 1910.
Freud reads the Louvre Saint Anne, to which the Met connects this head, as the synthesis of Leonardo’s childhood: two mothers, Caterina and Donna Albiera, the history he also reads in the vulture phantasy.
Interpreted by Sigmund Freud, Leonardo da Vinci by reading-plan-session-7 Not yet checked Contested, 2 challenges
Supports As a matter of fact Leonardo gave the boy two mothers, the one who stretched out her arms after him and another who is seen in the background, both are represented with the blissful smile of maternal happiness. Sigmund Freud, Leonardo da Vinci ch. IVSupports when I was still in the cradle, a vulture came down to me, he opened my mouth with his tail and struck me a few times with his tail against my lips. Sigmund Freud, Leonardo da Vinci ch. IIChallenges as I was in my cradle, a kite came to me and opened my mouth with its tail, and struck me several times with its tail inside my lips. The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci §1363 (C. A. 248a)Challenges Meyer Schapiro, Leonardo and Freud pp. 147–178Close The Head of the Virgin in Three-Quarter View Facing Right — Leonardo da Vinci 1510–13
Also by Leonardo da Vinci 6 A Bear Walking Leonardo da Vincica. 1482–85 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Compositional Sketches for the Virgin Adoring the Christ Child, with and without the Infant St. John the Baptist; Diagram of a Perspectival Projection (recto); Slight Doodles (verso) Leonardo da Vinci1480–85 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Head of a Man in Profile Facing to the Left Leonardo da Vinci1490–94 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Allegory on the Fidelity of the Lizard (recto); Design for a Stage Setting (verso) Leonardo da Vinci1496 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Divina proportione Leonardo da VinciJune 1, 1509 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Divine Proportion Leonardo da VinciVenice: Paganinus de Paganinus, 1509 The Art Institute of Chicago
Within fifty years of 1510–13 381 Bifolio from a Book of Hours: Initial V with Floral Border (recto) Unknownc. 1460–1500 Cleveland Museum of Art The Prophet Amos Baccio Baldinic. 1470 The Art Institute of Chicago Book of Hours (Use of Rouen) Master of the Geneva Latini (French, active Rouen, 1460–80)c. 1470 Cleveland Museum of Art Tommaso di Folco Portinari (1428–1501); Maria Portinari (Maria Maddalena Baroncelli, born 1456) Hans Memlingca. 1470 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY A Bridal Couple Unknownc. 1470 Cleveland Museum of Art The Flight into Egypt Martin Schongauer (German, c. 1450–1491)1470–74 Cleveland Museum of Art The Birth of the Virgin Fra Carnevale (Bartolomeo di Giovanni Corradini)1467 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY The Lamentation of Christ Simon Marmionca. 1473 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Also at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY 688 Marble female figure Bastis Master2600–2400 BCE Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Relief Fragment with a Ship Under Sail Unknownca. 2465–2458 BCE Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Tomb Chapel of Raemkai: South Wall Unknownca. 2446–2389 BCE Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY West wall of the chapel of the mastaba Kaemsenu with niches for Iretnub, Kaemsenu and Werdjedptah Unknownca. 2420–2250 BCE Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Design amulet, Cow and Calf on the Back, Device showing Antithetical Falcons Flanking an Ankh Sign over a Crouching Lion Unknownca. 2150–2100 B.C. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Design Amulet, Pyramidal Back with Horizontal Piercing, Device showing Two Falcons Flanking what is meant to be an Ankh Sign Unknownca. 2150–2010 B.C. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Design Amulet, Cow Nursing Calf and also a Kneeling Suckling Man Visible on Opposite Side on the Back, Device showing Antithetical Falcons with an Ankh Sign over a Lion Unknownca. 2150–2100 B.C. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Design Amulet, Back in the Form of a Woman Suckling a Child, Device showing Two Lizards Head-to-tail Unknownca. 2100–2080 B.C. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Similar picturesFound by visual likeness 8 pictures Visual resemblances suggested by the model. A match does not establish a shared subject or historical connection.
Head of a Nun Alessandro Marchesini, Italian, 1663–17381750–1800 Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum 0.87 Closed Eyes Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916); Becquet (French)1890 Cleveland Museum of Art 0.86 Drawing Felice Giani, Italian, 1758–1823About 1820 Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum 0.84 A Kneeling Angel Elisabetta Sirani, Italian, 1638–16651770–1800 Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum 0.84 Figural Study Pietro da Cortona, Italian, 1596 - 16691596–1669 Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum 0.84 Add a connection Propose a reading
Next Made in the sixteenth century, like The Head of the Virgin in Three-Quarter View Facing Right.
