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Head of a Bear is thought to have been executed by a young Leonardo da Vinci (b. 1452) circa 1480. It is a close-up drawing of a bear's head on a 7-by-7-centimetre (2.8 in × 2.8 in) piece of pink-beige paper. Its size has led it to be described as "a Post-it Note Leonardo". It is drawn with a silverpoint pencil. Silverpointing is a technique that Leonardo learnt in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio. It is an unforgiving medium as the marks made by the silver pencil are very difficult to erase.The drawing is thought to be part of a series of studies Leonardo made into the anatomy and movements of bears and a comparison he made between ursine and human anatomy. Bears were common in parts of Tuscany at that time, though it is likely that Leonardo made the drawing from a captive bear. It is one of four surviving drawings of animals from this period in Leonardo's life, the others being A Bear Walking (in the Metropolitan Museum of Art), Studies of a Dog's Paw (in the Scottish National Gallery) and Two Studies of a Cat and One of a Dog (in the British Museum). These works possibly all came from the same sketchbook.Head of a Bear was executed shortly before Leonardo left Florence for Milan. At Milan he painted Lady with an Ermine (1489–1490), a depiction of Cecilia Gallerani, the mistress of the Duke of Milan. It is known that Gallerani did not pose with an actual ermine (stoat), so Leonardo may have drawn upon his earlier work. The ermine gazes in a similar direction and its head structure, with small eyes and a cylindrical muzzle, is comparable to that of Head of a Bear. The ermine depicted is larger than such animals are in real life.
Scottish National Gallery Lady with an Ermine silverpoint Post-it Note Silverpoint Cecilia Gallerani stoat Leonardo da Vinci Andrea del Verrocchio National Gallery British Museum Tuscany Metropolitan Museum of Art