LEONARDO DA VINCI
1452-1519
22 Three Sketches of a Child with
aLamb
rA Child with a Lamb, Head of
an Old Man, and Studies of
Machinery
vBlack chalk and pen and brown ink; H: 21 cm (SViin.);
W: I4.2cm(5^9 /i6in.)
86.00.725 (SEE PLATE 2)
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) at bottom left cor-
ner, collection mark of Sir Thomas Lawrence (L. 2445);
inscribed jicipit liber.endaborum.assauasorda.judeo inebrai-
cho coposit[us] et a platone I tiburtinj Matin sermone trans-
lat[us] anno, arabu.dx. mse sap h ar / capi tulu pimu ingeo-
metrice arihmetice (p) vnyversalia proposita:, franco.o dif. in
brown ink by the artist; (verso) inscribed vedj la testa
de[llo] alto vitj sella tenvto ilfermo I essapi dal caiano I il zen-
dato invernjca[to e] stacdatovi.suso la cimatura conuarj colori I
a vso dj gianbellotto.e altre opere.regie allacqa.essimilmente.
sidebbe,f[a] I re.da potere.rimecter[e] I il polo.quando.fussi.
ch[o] I summato I [Figura] po/o. (s) rimessibile in brown ink
by the artist.
PROVENANCE: Abbot Luigi Cellotti, Venice(?); Sir
Thomas Lawrence, London; King William II of Holland
(sale, Het Paleis, The Hague, August 12-20, 1850, part
of lot 136); Grand Duke Charles Alexander of Saxe-
Weimar-Eisenbach, Thuringia; Schlossmuseum, Wei-
mar; S. Schwartz, New York; John R. Gaines, Lexing-
ton, Kentucky (sale, Sotheby's, New York, November
17, 1986, lots).
EXHIBITIONS: The Lawrence Gallery, Fifth Exhibition,
Woodburn's Gallery, London, 1836, no. 70; Italy in the
Time of Raphael, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard Univer-
sity, Cambridge, Mass., February-April 1983.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. Solmi, "Le fonti dei manoscritti di
Leonardo da Vinci," Giornale storico della letteratura ital-
iana (Turin, 1908), pp. 263-64; W. vonSeidlitz, Leonardo
da Vinci der Wendepunkt der Renaissance (Berlin, 1909),
vol. i, pp. 76, 80; E. Suida, "Leonardo da Vinci und seine
Schule in Mailand," Monatshefte for Kunstwissenschaft 2
(1920), p. 284; A. Venturi, "Per Leonardo da Vinci," Arte
25 (1922), pp. 3-6; E. Moller, "Die Madonna mit den
spielenden Kindern aus der Werkstatt Leonardos," Zeit-
schriftjur Bildende Kunst 62 (1928-29), pp. 221, 226; T.
Borenius, "Leonardo's Madonna with Children at Play,"
Burlington Magazine 56, no. 324 (March 1930), p. 142; E.
Verga, Bibliografia vindana, 1493-1930 (Bologna, 1931),
vol. i, p. 172, no. 475; W. von Seidlitz, Leonardo da Vinci,
der Wendepunkt der Renaissance (Vienna, 1935), p. 66; A. E.
Popham, The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci (London,
1946), p. 123; reprint ed. (London, 1964), pp. 51-52; A.
Venturi, I manoscritti e i disegni di Leonardo da Vinci (Rome,
1949), fascs. 6, no. 243.2, p. 38; 7, no. 243.2; C. Pedretti,
Studi vindani (Geneva, 1957), pp. 225-29; K. T. Steinitz,
"Drawings by Leonardo, Formerly in the Possession of
the Grand Duke of Weimar," Raccolta vindana 20 (1961-
63), pp. 343-44; K. Clark and C. Pedretti, The Drawings
of Leonardo da Vinci in the Collection of Her Majesty the
Queen at Windsor Castle (London, 1968), pp. 98-99, un-
der no. 12540; J. Wasserman, "A Re-discovered Cartoon
by Leonardo da Vinci, Burlington Magazine 112, no. 80 5
(April 1970), pp. 201, 203; A. Vezzosi et al., Leonardo dopo
Milano: La Madonna deifusi (1501) (Florence, 1982), pp.
30 , n. 22; 82-85, 87-89; idem, Leonardo e il leonardismo a
Napoli e a Roma (Florence, 1983), pp. 72-73; P. C. Ma-
rani, Leonardo e i leonardeschi a Brera (Florence, 1987), pp.
120-21; C. Pedretti, "Leonardo: Era giusto tentare," Art
e dossier 10 (February 1987), pp. 4-5; idem, in P. Gal-
luzzi, ed., Leonardo da Vinci: Engineer and Architect, exh.
cat. (Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1987), pp. 16-21.
THE RECTO OF THIS COMPLEX SHEET CONTAINS THREE
pen-and-ink studies of a child with a lamb as well as three
barely legible chalk sketches of the same theme. All are
related to the chalk sketch on the verso and to another in
black chalk in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle (inv.
12540). Throughout the considerable literature on this
drawing, there has been disagreement as to whether the
child represented is Christ or Saint John and whether
these studies were made in preparation for a version of
the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne or a lost composition
showing the Virgin kneeling with Christ and Saint John.
The latter is known through several copies and derivative
pictures (Uffizi; Ashmolean Museum; Milan, private
collection).64 ITALIAN SCHOOL • LEONARDO DA VINCI