A young man caressing an old woman
Leonardo da Vinci|Wenceslaus Hollar|Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel (British, 1585–1646) and Aletheia Talbot, Countess of Arundel (British, ca. 1590–1654), m. 1606
1646 · Etching, only state · Drawings and Prints
The source for this image depicting an amorous young man and older woman was attributed to Leonardo, who obsessively represented pairs of contrasting physiognomies: youths of ideally perfect beauty often face elderly types with physical deformities. Though the inscription on the print confirms the original work was in the Earl of Arundel’s collection, a drawing with this figural composition by Leonardo does not survive. In the master’s writings of the early 1490s, he quoted Petrarch underneath a sketch of a grotesque woman, "What is fair in mortal beings passes and does not last
- Artist
- Leonardo da Vinci|Wenceslaus Hollar|Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel (British, 1585–1646) and Aletheia Talbot, Countess of Arundel (British, ca. 1590–1654), m. 1606
- Date
- 1646
- Medium
- Etching, only state
- Department
- Drawings and Prints
- Credit line
- Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1917
