1981.203: Three Grotesque Heads

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1981.203

People

Copy after Leonardo da Vinci, Italian (Anchiano, Italy 1452 - 1519 Amboise, France)
Possibly by Francesco Melzi, Italian (1491/93-c. 1570)

Title

Three Grotesque Heads

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

15th-16th century

Culture

Italian

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/295350

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Brown ink, with smudges of red chalk, on cream antique laid paper

Dimensions

actual: 5.8 x 9.8 cm (2 5/16 x 3 7/8 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• watermark: No watermark was observed when examined by Craigen Bowen, 2/25/2002.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

The Earl of Pembroke, Wilton House, Wiltshire, sold [through Sotheby's, London, July 10, 1917 as part of lot 466]; to Bacri Frères, Paris, France, sold; to Edward Fowles, New York, NY, 1924, bequest; to Jean Fowles (his wife), New York, NY, gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1981.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Jean Fowles in memory of Edward Fowles, step-father of Claire Douglas, Radcliffe, class of 1955

Accession Year

1981

Object Number

1981.203

Division

European and American Art

Contact

am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

• S. Arthur Strong, Reproductions in Facsimile of Drawings by the Old Masters in the Collection of the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery at Wilton House, P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. Ltd. (London, England, 1900), part II, no. 15 (as after Leonardo)
• Patricia Trutty-Coohill, "The Spencer Collection of Grotesques and Caricatures after Leonardo", Arte Lombarda: Rivista di Storia dell' Arte (1993), nos. 105-107, p. 51; fig. 15, p. 52 (as Francesco Melzi)
• Patricia Trutty-Coohill and Carlo Pedretti, The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci and His Circle in America, Giunti Editore (Florence, Italy, 1993), no. 30 h, repr. in color
• Patricia Trutty-Coohill, "Americana Aftermath", Leonardi Vinci: Journal of Leonardo Studies & Bibliography of Vinciana, ed. Carlo Pedretti, Giunti Editore (Florence, 1996), Vol. IX, pp. 205-206, p. 206
• Old Master Drawings, auct. cat., Christie's, London (London, England, July 7, 1998), under lot no. 59, p. 58

Exhibition History

• The Sforza Court: Milan in the Renaissance, 1450-1535, Archer M. Huntington Gallery, Austin, 10/27/1988 - 12/18/1988; University Art Museum, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, 01/18/1989 - 03/12/1989; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 04/16/1989 - 06/04/1989
• 32Q: 2540 Renaissance, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/31/2017 - 12/12/2017

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