The balance of visual evidence strongly favors the
hypothesis connecting these drawings to the lost Virgin
Kneeling with Christ and Saint John, since the collective
poses of the child in them are far more similar to that of
the Christ child there than to any painted or drawn image
of the Virgin and Saint Anne. Based on two factors—the
appearance of a sketch on the Windsor sheet that refers
to a gem of Diomedes which had belonged to Lorenzo
de' Medici, and the comment on the "head of Altoviti"
on the verso of the Getty sheet—it is very likely that the
drawings of the child date from Leonardo's years in Flor-
ence just after 1500. Similarly, the note at the top of the
recto referring to the title of a geometry book by Abra-
ham bar Hiyya Savasorda indicates that Leonardo was
back in Florence, where a copy of the book was in the
library of San Marco. By contrast the laminating ma-
chine on the verso and the attendent explanatory notes
date from 1497-1500, as has been explained by Pedretti
(1957).
The verso also contains a stark physiognomic study
in black chalk at the left margin, directly above a finely
drawn leaf in pen and ink. The former seems to have been
executed at the same time as the study of the child in chalk
on the verso.
Leonardo's studies of Christ on this sheet appear to
have evolved beginning with the freely drawn chalk
study on the verso and proceeding to the pen sketch at
the top right on the recto, in which the basic pose was
established. This was followed by the larger pen drawing
at the bottom right, showing the first effort to set the po-
sition of the legs. Lastly, the artist drew the most elabo-
rate study at the bottom left, in which the legs are posed
with greater complexity and the child leans back on the
lamb. The latter may have been preceded by the sketch
at Windsor, showing similar details in much rougher
form. The faint chalk sketches on the recto of the Getty
sheet are difficult to read, but the one at the top center
may have been done before the first two pen drawings on
the recto. The figure drawn at the bottom center is the
only one facing to the left and may be Saint John rather
than the Christ child.
LEONARDO DA VINCI • ITALIAN SCHOOL 65