Scapigliata

A face of perfect softness floats above a storm of hair that has barely been sketched in. Half finished and wholly mesmerising, this tiny panel shows a mind at work as much as a woman.

The story behind the painting

Known as La Scapigliata, Italian for 'The Lady with Dishevelled Hair', this small panel is generally attributed to Leonardo da Vinci and dated around 1506 to 1508. Its attribution is still debated, and some experts give it to one of his pupils. Almost everything about its origins is uncertain: there is no consensus on the subject, the date, its history or why it was made. Scholars have proposed that it was a sketch for an uncompleted Saint Anne, a study for the London Virgin of the Rocks or for the lost Leda and the Swan, or a work deliberately left unfinished for its beauty. Proof of its existence may reach back to 1531, when it may have belonged to Isabella d'Este, and it was recorded in 1826 when Gaetano Callani's collection was sold to the Galleria Nazionale di Parma.

What to look for

The panel is tiny, just 24.6 by 21 centimetres of poplar wood, worked in oil, umber and white lead. Let your eye settle first on the face, which fills most of the picture. The young woman gazes downward, her eyes half closed, ignoring both the world and us, while her mouth curves into an ambiguous smile that many compare with the Mona Lisa. Then let your eye drift outward. The hair is drawn loosely, waving behind her as if lifted by air, and beyond it the primed background was never painted at all. The bridge between the finished face and the sketched surroundings is sfumato, the soft smoky blending Leonardo mastered. The art historian Alexander Nagel notes how the shadows hide every stroke, and how gentle light softens them, as along the left side of the jaw.

Meaning and intent

Because nobody knows who she is or why she was painted, the meaning of this picture lives largely in its unfinished state. Carmen Bambach has suggested calling it a 'brush drawing' or a 'painted sketch', and scholars link its drawing-like quality to Leonardo's Adoration of the Magi and Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, as well as to The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne. The contrast between the polished face and the loose hair has provoked much speculation. Some see a working study; others wonder whether the master stopped on purpose, sensing that the half-made image said more than a completed one could. Either way, the inward, downcast gaze turns the painting into something private and contemplative, a moment of thought caught before it was fully spoken.

Legacy

The painting has been admired for its captivating beauty, its mysterious mood and its command of sfumato. Many general studies of Leonardo pass over it in silence, yet most scholars who do discuss it regard it as an autograph work, and it has been shown as a Leonardo in several major exhibitions devoted to the artist. It goes by many names, including Head of a Woman, Head of a Young Woman and Portrait of a Maiden, a sign of how hard it has been to pin down. Today it is housed in the Galleria Nazionale di Parma. Small as it is, it offers a rare window into how a Renaissance image could emerge from the panel, with the most alive part, the face, appearing first.