Female Head in Profile

A woman seen in strict profile, drawn around 1500. The profile was the old, formal way to show a face in Florence, the pose used on coins and on the marriage portraits of the generation before him, all clean outline and no meeting of the eyes. Leonardo uses it to chase an ideal of feminine beauty, the straight nose and low brow of a type he kept returning to, the hair bound and braided with great care. He is after a shape he found beautiful more than the likeness of any one woman. The line of the profile is laid down with a confidence that hardly needs a correction.