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23

A Study by Raphael from the "Mona Lisa."

(THE LOUVRE.)

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earliest efforts in this particular direction. The heads, like those in the Annunciation in the Uffizi, are remarkable for their extreme mannerism; the hair is curled and waved with excessive care.

There is more decision in the fine drawing of the Uffizi Gallery: a young woman with long unbound hair downcast eyes, and lips straight rather than curved, facing the spectator. (Reproduced in colour, plate ii.)

In this drawing, as in the Virgin of the Rocks, Leonardo shows his preference for low

and somewhat square chins.

The same peculiarity is observable in the work of Bernardino Luini. At a later period, the artist is careful to round his chins so as to secure the most perfect oval possible.

Following this comes the type of the young woman with dishevelled hair and haggard eyes, examples of which are to

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be found in the Turin Library, the Windsor Library, and the Bonnat Collection.

Amongst the drawings for the Adoration of the Magi we note for the first time in the very important sketch in the Uffizi (admitting indeed, what is by no means clear, that this composition belongs to the Florentine period) that type "sui generis," which, for want of a better term, has been described as the Leonardesque type. This face, in which the mouth is a little tremulous, is an extraordinary and exquisite mingling of grace and morbidezza. The Virgin smiles, but her smile is one that recalls or foreshadows tears a divinely human smile, of which Leonardo alone possessed the secret.

Later, on the contrary, Leonardo shows a preference for high and rounded chins. This inclination, already evident in his study for the Madonna Litta of the Hermitage, is still more clearly shown in

VOL. II.

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