One of the great Renaissance painters, Leonardo da Vinci continually tested artistic traditions and techniques. Head of a Woman, a small brush drawing with pigment, depicts a young woman with her head tilted and her eyes downcast. Her posture recalls the Virgin Mary in Leonardo’s The Virgin of the Rocks, suggesting that the drawing may have served as a model. The drawing’s nickname, La scapigliata, translates to “disheveled” and refers to the young woman’s wayward strands of hair.

Source: Britannica