Portrait of a Musician

The sitter is unknown. Cleaning in 1904 uncovered the sheet of music in his hand, and candidates have included Franchino Gaffurio, choirmaster of Milan Cathedral, and Atalante Migliorotti, the singer who travelled from Florence to Milan with Leonardo.

The face is fully worked, with moist eyes and a slightly parted mouth, as if he has just sung or is about to. The clothes and hair are sketchier. The panel is walnut, the wood Leonardo used in Milan, and it is the only portrait by him of a man that survives.

Leonardo himself was a musician. The Anonimo Gaddiano says he played the lira beautifully, and he designed instruments in his notebooks.