A young man caressing an old woman
The source for this image depicting an amorous young man and older woman was attributed to Leonardo, who obsessively represented pairs of contrasting physiognomies: youths of ideally perfect beauty often face elderly types with physical deformities. Though the inscription on the print confirms the original work was in the Earl of Arundel’s collection, a drawing with this figural composition by Leonardo does not survive. In the master’s writings of the early 1490s, he quoted Petrarch underneath a sketch of a grotesque woman, "What is fair in mortal beings passes and does not last
Artwork Details
- Title: A young man caressing an old woman
- Etcher: Wenceslaus Hollar (Bohemian, Prague 1607–1677 London)
- Artist: After Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, Vinci 1452–1519 Amboise)
- Subject: Relates to collection of Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel (British, 1585–1646) and Aletheia Talbot, Countess of Arundel (British, ca. 1590–1654), m. 1606
- Date: 1646
- Medium: Etching, only state
- Dimensions: Sheet: 6 11/16 × 5 1/8 in. (17 × 13 cm)
cut on the platemark - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1917
- Object Number: 17.50.18-162
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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