Leonardo da Vinci
Figure study for the Adoration of the Magi, c. 1500 

In 1481 Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to paint an altarpiece depicting the Adoration of the Magi for the abbey church of San Donato a Scopeto in Florence. He produced a large-scale, positively visionary composition, in which, on an architectural stage, he combined the Adoration itself with a large number of marginal motifs and lively groupings. The work, however, remained one of the master’s great unfinished projects (today in Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi).

The composition was preceded by numerous preparatory studies, including the sheet now in Cologne, with sketches of male nudes. As a left-hander, Leonardo mostly began in the top right-hand corner of a sheet, working towards the lower left, in order not to smear the ink. Accordingly, the first drawing were those of the youths in the top part of the drawing. In the middle of the sheet, with the reverential bowing on the part of two men, there is a hint of the Adoration theme. Finally, bottom left, Leonardo drew a scene with several figures, whose arrangement he adopted for the painting. The figures are sketched with a light but precise pen-stroke, plasticity is created by sparse parallel shading. Leonardo dispenses with details such as hands or garments, as he made separate studies for these. The sheet thus documents a step-by-step process, from the first sketch of an individual body to the composition of a group of figures that could be transferred to the lay-in of the painting.

Leonardo da Vinci
Vinci near Empoli 1452–1519 Clos Lucé near Amboise

Figure study for the Adoration of the Magi (S. Donato a Scopeto, Florence)
c. 1500, pen and brown ink on white vergé paper, 27.3 x 17.6 cm
Old holdings, acquired before 1908 WRM Z 2003 (recto)