Head of a Young Woman with Tousled Hair (Leda)
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, was an Italian Renaissance polymath whose areas of interest included invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, and cartography. He epitomised the Renaissance humanist ideal.
Max Resolution:808×952 PX
Title:Head of a Young Woman with Tousled Hair (Leda)
Original Title:Testa di fanciulla (La Scapigliata)
Artists:Leonardo da Vinci
Date:c.1508
Style:High Renaissance
Genre:portrait
Medium:gouache,wood,oil
Location:Parma National Gallery, Parma, Italy
Dimensions:36.2×24.7 cm
Copyright:Public domain
The Head of a Woman—also known as La Scapigliata— is a painting in oil on wood by the Italian Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci, dating from perhaps around 1500 and housed in the Galleria Nazionale di Parma, Italy.
The work is a finished painting, mentioned for the first time in the House of Gonzaga collection in 1627. It was created in the art period high renaissance. It is perhaps the same work that Ippolito Calandra, in 1531, suggested to hang in the bedroom of Margaret Paleologa, wife of Federico II Gonzaga. In 1501, the marquesses wrote to Pietro Novellara asking if Leonardo could paint a Madonna for her private studiolo.
Part of the Parmesan collection since 1839, the painting has been dated to Leonardo's mature period, around the time of Virgin of the Rocks or The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist.
Alexander Nagel wrote of the painting: "The eyes do not focus on any outward object, and they give the impression that they will remain where they are: they see through the filter of an inner state, rather than receive immediate impressions from the outside world. It is the attitude of being suspended in a state of mind beyond specific thought—unaware, even, of its own body...here an inner life is suggested by a new order of pictorial effects, without recourse to action or narrative."
The work is a finished painting, mentioned for the first time in the House of Gonzaga collection in 1627. It was created in the art period high renaissance. It is perhaps the same work that Ippolito Calandra, in 1531, suggested to hang in the bedroom of Margaret Paleologa, wife of Federico II Gonzaga. In 1501, the marquesses wrote to Pietro Novellara asking if Leonardo could paint a Madonna for her private studiolo.
Part of the Parmesan collection since 1839, the painting has been dated to Leonardo's mature period, around the time of Virgin of the Rocks or The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist.
Alexander Nagel wrote of the painting: "The eyes do not focus on any outward object, and they give the impression that they will remain where they are: they see through the filter of an inner state, rather than receive immediate impressions from the outside world. It is the attitude of being suspended in a state of mind beyond specific thought—unaware, even, of its own body...here an inner life is suggested by a new order of pictorial effects, without recourse to action or narrative."