Head of Christ

Around 1494 Leonardo was at work in Milan on the Last Supper, painting it on the end wall of a monastery dining hall. Every apostle needed a face, and Leonardo famously hunted the streets for models, even sketching a criminal for the traitor Judas. But there was one face he could not find in any street. This small chalk study is his attempt at the head of Christ, eyes lowered, features calm and left unfinished, softened with his fingertips. A later account says Leonardo left Christ's face incomplete in the mural itself, doubting any living model could carry it. The drawing has faded and been retouched over five centuries. You can still feel him searching in it for a face that did not exist to be copied.