Heads,

ca. 1645

In his notes for a treatise on painting, Leonardo da Vinci advised young artists on how to quickly sketch a person’s face in order to remember it later, noting: “I shall not speak of monstrous faces because they are easily kept in mind.” Leonardo’s fascination with the extreme possibilities of facial features is evident in numerous drawings that were widely imitated by his pupils as well as by later artists, including Wenceslaus Hollar. This sheet juxtaposes idealized types—at the left and top right—with figures whose features become pronouncedly exaggerated. At the top center of this cluster is a creature so fantastical that it no longer seems human. Leonardo often moved from human figures to bestial and fantastical ones in his sketches, combining his observations with his imagination. The inscription refers to Leonardo as the inventor of the figures and Hollar as the engraver.