“La Scapigliata”
For an artist as famous as Leonardo da Vinci, it’s incredible that very few artworks from him survive to this day. Today, we will be looking at one of those rare pieces…
“La Scapigliata” is a gorgeous oil paint sketch on a wood panel attributed to the Italian Renaissance master, Leonardo da Vinci, from circa 1492 to 1501.
In this piece, a woman looks down demurely to her right. Her face is detailed, shaded, and quite complete, while her hair is gestural, with a few solidly drawn strands providing suggestion for the overall style and hair texture. The faint lines of a headband can be seen across the top of the sitter’s hair.
Given no formal title, this piece is known as “La Scapigliata” which translates to “Lady with disheveled hair”. This painting is relatively small, at 8.3” x 9.7”, and was made towards the end of da Vinci’s life when he was in his late 50s.
Most scholars agree that this was likely a preparatory drawing and that the final painting was never completed. Even so, da Vinci’s brilliance is evident. He was a master at depicting facial expressions and conveying mood.
The slightly turned face, the ‘half tum’ depiction also known as contrapposto, was an art style that da Vinci had invented. Prior to the development of the contrapposto technique, the sitters of portraits were usually positioned looking either straight on at the viewer or in full profile. The lovely and very soft, subtle shading that can be seen on the sitter’s neck and face, called sfumato, was a technique also invented by Leonardo. Sfumato is essentially shading without borders.
For being such a well-known master artist, very few works by da Vinci actually survive to this day. At best, there are approximately 15 pieces still in existence.
“La Scapigliata” is currently on display at the Galleria Nazionale di Parma in Parma, Italy.
For more on Leonardo da Vinci, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
