Head of a Man in Profile

Luca Signorelli (Luca d'Egidio di Luca di Ventura)

1490s · Black chalk, pen and brown ink, heightened with white. · Robert Lehman Collection

This sheet is a significant example of the scientific study of perspective in the fifteenth century. It represents an exercise in foreshortening the human head, through which the profile could be used to construct alternative views. The horizontal lines – incised with a stylus - and the letters annotated around the ear served as coordinate points to produce such a transformation, while the pricked outlines aided in the replication of the profile. This diagram closely follows the method of foreshortening described in a treatise on perspective written by Signorelli’s master, Piero della Francesca.

Artist

Luca Signorelli (Luca d'Egidio di Luca di Ventura)

Date

1490s

Medium

Black chalk, pen and brown ink, heightened with white.

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975