Head of a Woman (La Scapigliata)

A young woman bows her head, eyes lowered, the faintest tender expression playing over a face modeled in the softest gradations Leonardo ever achieved - while her hair breaks loose around it in quick, unfinished strokes, giving the panel its nickname, the dishevelled one. The contrast is the whole magic: a finished, breathing face emerging from a sketch, the unfinished parts left to suggest more than completion could. Whether it was a study or complete in itself is unknown. In a few earth tones on a small board, Leonardo distills the inwardness and atmospheric softness that his larger works pursue at length.