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LEONARDO da Vinci: Grotesque head

🖼 Grotesque head, 1500-05
Black chalk on paper
390 × 280 cm
Oxford, United Kingdom

Exaggerated features—bulbous nose, protruding chin, gnarled skin—rendered in meticulous pen strokes reveal da Vinci's fascination with human extremes. His grotesque studies challenged Renaissance ideals of beauty, documenting physiognomy and aging as legitimate artistic subjects worthy of masterful observation.

The story of art
The story of art
E. H. Gombrich
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