Compositional Sketches for the Virgin Adoring the Christ Child, with and without the Infant St. John the Baptist; Diagram of a Perspectival Projection (recto); Slight Doodles (verso)

Description

Virgin Adoring the Christ Child sketches gather across this working sheet by Leonardo da Vinci, showing variations on a devotional composition. The kneeling figures appear in different arrangements, allowing the page to record possibilities rather than one entirely settled scene. Pale brown marks and open spaces keep the studies distinct, inviting attention to the movement of an idea as it takes visual form.

Made around 1480–85, the displayed side combines silverpoint with passages reworked in pen and ink, alongside a diagram concerned with perspective. The sheet brings figure grouping and spatial investigation into one field of thought. Its interest lies in that coexistence: a religious image develops through observation, repetition and the consideration of structure. Leonardo lets the page remain a place of inquiry, where the differences between small sketches can be as revealing as any completed arrangement.

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