The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci and his Circle in the American Collections

Including the Complete Series of Caricatures in the Spence Collection of the New York Public Library

[T] his collection of drawings is particularly important for the imposing amount of its unpublished material, such as the complete series of caricatures in the Spence Collection of the New York Public Library - 104 copies made in the sixteenth century direct from Leonardo’s originals, mostly lost, and therefore first hand documents for the study of the complex problem of Leonardo’s preoccupation with physiognomy at the time of his studies for the Last Supper c. 1495.

Caricatures and figure studies are, of course, present among the 15 autograph drawings by Leonardo in the American collections, 8 of which are found in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. These include the first study for the composition of the Virgin of the Rocks , the study for the head of the Virgin in the Louvre St. Anne , the allegory of the lizard, and the project for staging of the Danae by Baldassare Taccone.

Among the drawings recently acquired and presented here for the first time in facsimile, are the drapery studies formerly in the collection of the Marquis De Ganay in Paris. and mentioned by Vasari, the sheet of figure and technological studies formerly in the Granducal Collection at Weimar Castle and now at the Getty Museum in Malibu, California, where there is also one of the caricatures from the collection of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth.

Drawings by every Leonardo pupil and follower from any time are gathered in the remaining facsimiles for a total of about 200 drawings arranged on 80 plates, 5 of which are double.

A text volume of 118 pages in English, with catalogue, includes tables of concordance, history of the collections, indexes and a full bibliography - a work of impeccable scholarship presented in a splendid design. The Facsimile is limited to 998 numbered sets world-wide.

A leather covered box (size 338 x 448 mm), with gold stamping, contains 80 plates with facsimile reproductions of the drawings, recto and verso, a text volume of 118 pages printed on handmade paper and bound in Fabriano paper.

Note: This volume is now sold out.