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LEONARDO da Vinci: Design for St John in the Wilderness

🖼 Design for St John in the Wilderness, 1508-15
Red chalk on paper
24 × 18 cm
Varese, Italy

Delicate pen lines sketch a solitary figure in a rocky landscape, rendered with anatomical precision and flowing drapery. Leonardo's study captures St. John's spiritual isolation while revealing his obsessive exploration of human form and natural wilderness as divine spaces.

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