Head of a Girl

Head of a Girl from 1523 by Luini at the Wallace Collection is a study or fragment that demonstrates the Leonardesque ideal of feminine beauty that Luini perpetuated in Milan. These idealized female heads were enormously popular with collectors and widely copied Oil on canvas, increasingly preferred over panel in the sixteenth century, offered greater flexibility for large-scale compositions The work is now in the collection of Wallace Collection in London.

The girl's features are modeled with the soft sfumato transitions and luminous skin tones derived from Leonardo, Luini's sweeter interpretation making the image immediately appealing.