← Wenceslaus Hollar

Four Heads (from Characaturas by Leonardo da Vinci, from Drawings by Wincelslaus Hollar, out of the Portland Museum) (1786, Met-Objekt 5569)

Original title: Four Heads (from Characaturas by Leonardo da Vinci, from Drawings by Wincelslaus Hollar, out of the Portland Museum)

Artist

Wenceslaus Hollar

Date

1786

Medium

Etching

Dimensions

Plate: 7 11/16 x 6 5/16 in. (19.6 x 16 cm) Sheet: 7 7/8 x 6 1/2 in. (20 x 16.5 cm)

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1953

kurzbeschreibung

Etched in 1786, Wenceslaus Hollar's "Four Heads" gathers four portrait heads in profile, each set within its own square frame. The varied hairstyles and facial features suggest distinct characters. A reproduction after Leonardo da Vinci, the print belongs to a series published from Hollar's drawings in the Portland Museum.

Description

The layout follows a plain grid: two heads above, two below, each enclosed in a square frame and shown in profile. Features and hairdos are worked out with great care; contours and shading emerge through fine strokes and lines. Black and white prevail, in the neutral, even tones typical of an etching. Light and shadow arise from line alone, underscoring the technical character of the sheet.

Context

This 1786 etching reproduces a drawing by Wenceslaus Hollar, who in turn drew on caricatures by Leonardo da Vinci. Hollar, a seventeenth-century Bohemian printmaker, was known for his exact reproductions of old masters. The sheet comes from the Portland Museum, an important art collection, and appeared in a series that made drawings from that collection accessible. The date 1786 refers to the publication, not to Hollar's earlier original.

Impact

The symmetrical arrangement and clear linework give the sheet a calm, balanced presence. The four individual faces lend the view an intimate, almost portrait-like quality and invite comparison between the characters. Because the image stays within black and white and the linework is precise, a sober, documentary aesthetic results.

Technique

Hollar's sheet is an etching, an intaglio process in which the drawing is bitten into a metal plate. The finest lines and hatching that build the shading are characteristic of his technique. The plate measures 19.6 x 16 cm, the sheet 20 x 16.5 cm — a small, richly detailed print format.

AI-generated description text

Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)