Two Grotesque Heads Facing Each Other in Profile

ca. 1510

Francesco Melzi Italian, 1493-1570

Not On View

Image Only Image + Details All Images High Resolution TIFF Metadata

About the Artwork

Please note: This section is empty
Markings

Please note: This section is empty

This section contains information about signatures, inscriptions and/or markings an object may have.
Provenance

Please note: This section is empty

Provenance is a record of an object's ownership. We are continually researching and updating this information to show a more accurate record and to ensure that this object was ethically and legally obtained.

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:
Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

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.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
Published References

Please note: This section is empty

We regularly update our object record as new research and findings emerge, and we welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
Catalogue Raisonné

Please note: This section is empty

A catalogue raisonné is an annotated listing of artworks created by an artist across different media.
Credit Line for Reproduction

Please note: This section is empty

The credit line includes information about the object, such as the artist, title, date, and medium. Also listed is its ownership, the manner in which it was acquired, and its accession number. This information must be cited alongside the object whenever it is shown or reproduced.

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. Unknown

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)

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

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.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

Suggest Feedback

Published References

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

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, French, English, and Spanish Drawings and Watercolors: Sixteenth Through Eighteenth Centuries. New York, 1992, p. 48, no. 11.

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

Lesley, Parker. "The Growth of the Collection of Drawings." Bulletin of the DIA 18, 7 (April 1939): p. 3.

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

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.

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.

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.).

Olszewski, Edward. A Corpus of Drawings in Midwestern Collections. Sixteenth-Century Italian Drawings, vol. 1-2. Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2008, vol. 1, pp. 233-234, cat. 190r (ill.).

Kindly share your feedback or any additional information, as this record is still a work in progress and may need further refinement.

Suggest Feedback

Catalogue Raisoneé

Please note: This section is empty

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.