Leonardo da Vinci, Virgin
and Child with Cat, a
drawing
Florence, Italy, around AD
1478-81
The drawing shows the seated Virgin holding the
Christ Child on her right knee. The Child in turn grasps a cat
which struggles to escape. The forms twist and turn within the
space defined by the thin line of an arch. The moving figures form
a triangle or pyramid, in a geometrical composition that is typical
of Leonardo. At the top left of the sheet, the outline of a clock
suggests that the sketch was a study for the Virgin and Child in a
domestic setting.
This
sheet shows how Leonardo rapidly developed his compositional ideas.
First he drew the Virgin's head in the centre, tracing
through the thin paper from a similar composition on the reverse of
the sheet. Leonardo then placed the Virgin's head looking
out to the left. Finally, he settled on the Virgin looking down to
the right, to balance the heads of the Christ Child and the cat who
face left. He then painted a thin brown wash over the final
composition and strengthened his figures with thicker
lines.
Leonardo made a
number of drawings of this theme, but no painting of the
Virgin and Child with
Cat survives. Instead, the geometry and
balance of the composition and sense of movement became
characteristic of his High Renaissance style.
A.E. Popham and P. Pouncey, Italian drawings in the Depa-5 (London, The British Museum Press, 1950)
M. Kemp and J. Roberts, Leonardo da Vinci (Hayward Gallery, London, 1989)
J. Rowlands, Master drawings and watercolou (London, The British Museum Press, 1984)