Two Grotesque Heads Facing Each Other in Profile

ca. 1510

Francesco Melzi Italian, 1493-1570

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About the Artwork

Title Two Grotesque Heads Facing Each Other in Profile

Artwork Date ca. 1510

Artist Francesco Melzi

Life Dates 1493-1570

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. Italian

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Pen and brown ink on cream laid paper

Dimensions Sheet: 1 3/4 × 4 inches (4.4 × 10.2 cm)

Classification Drawings

Department Prints, Drawings & Photographs

Credit Gift of Edward Fowles

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 38.61.A

Markings

Inscriptions Inscribed, in pen and brown ink, on mat, lower center: Leonardo da Vinci | 1452-1519

Provenance

Earls of Pembroke, Wilton House (Wilton, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, England).
July 5-6 and 9-10, 1917, sold by (Sotheby's, London, England).
Edward Fowles (Paris, France);
1938-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Strong, S. Arthur. Reproductions in Facsimile of Drawings by the Old Masters in the Collection of the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery at Wilton House. Cat., London, 1900, no. 15.

Lesley, Parker. "The Growth of the Collection of Drawings." Bulletin of the DIA 18, no. 7 (April 1939): p. 3.

Valentiner, William R. in collaboration with William E. Suida, et al. Leonardo da Vinci Loan Exhibition Exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles, 1949, no. 80, p. iii (ill.).

Huxley, Aldous, Robert A. Millikan, Elmer Belt, and William R. Valentiner. Leonardo da Vinci 500th Anniversary Exhibition. Exh. cat., Municipal Arts Commission of Los Angeles. Los Angeles, 1952, p. 17.

Italian Drawings in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum vol. 1. Exh. cat., British Museum. London, 1950-67, p. 73, no. 119.

Pedretti, Carlo. Leonardo da Vinci: Studies for a Nativity and the 'Mona Lisa Cartoon' with Drawings After Leonardo from the Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana. Exh. cat., University of California. Los Angeles, 1973, p. 40.

Bean, Jacob. Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century Drawings in the Metropolitain Museum of Art. Cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1982, pp. 135-136.

Old Master Drawings from Chatsworth. Sales cat., Christie's, London, July 3,1984, p. 54, no. 25.

The Collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Vol. 3, Italian, French, English, and Spanish Drawings and Watercolors: Sixteenth Through Eighteenth Centuries. New York, 1992, p. 48, no. 11.

Olszewski, Edward. A Corpus of Drawings in Midwestern Collections. Vol. 1, Sixteenth-Century Italian Drawings. Belgium, 2008, pp. 233-234, cat. 190r (ill.).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Francesco Melzi, Two Grotesque Heads Facing Each Other in Profile, ca. 1510, pen and brown ink on cream laid paper. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Edward Fowles, 38.61.A.