Head of Christ

Leonardo da Vinci's Head of Christ, painted around 1494 and now in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, is widely considered a study for the figure of Christ in the Last Supper, which Leonardo was painting in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie during the mid-1490s. The softly modeled face demonstrates the sfumato technique at its most refined, with the idealized features expressing the gentle authority that Leonardo sought for his definitive interpretation of Christ.

Leonardo's sfumato technique creates the most subtle transitions between light and shadow, with the delicately modeled features emerging from a softly blurred background in a demonstration of the atmospheric painting technique he perfected.