Study for the Head of Saint Anne

The Study for the Head of Saint Anne is a drawing on paper executed in black stone by Leonardo da Vinci and preserved at Windsor Castle. It is a portrait of a woman, and is considered to be the preparatory study for the head of Saint Anne in the painting Sainte Anne, la Vierge et l'Enfant Jésus jouant avec un agneau in the Louvre Museum. Probably made around 1502–1503 -although some scholars put the date back to 1508-1515- the drawing belongs to a series of studies that enabled the painter to create the cartoon he used to elaborate the painting from the same period.

Nevertheless, the artist made a number of modifications, as evidenced by a copy of the cartoon – the Resta-Esterhazy cartoon, which has now disappeared, but of which photographs have survived – and by scientific imaging analyses: he thus modified the face, then the hairstyle during the creation of the cartoon, and did so directly on the panel as a repentance. The Florence master's mastery of the translation of volume and light is evident. And although working within the iconographic theme of the "Trinitarian St.

Anne" with its rather strict conventions, he deploys elements of his own ideals in the faces he usually depicts.