Sight unseen: vision and perception in Leonardo's Madonnas: in the first of two articles on Leonardo da Vinci, Larry J. Feinberg explains how the artist's interest in the way the eyes work influenced his realistic depictions of the Christ Child as a baby learning to see

Apollo, July, 2004 by Larry J. Feinberg

(30) The background scene depends on Leonardo's preliminary study with perspectival grid, executed in silverpoint and pen and ink, which is preserved In the Uffizi (436Er); for a reproduction, see Carlo Pedretti, I disegni di Leonardo da Vinci e della sua cerchia, Florence, 1985, no 8, pp. 56-68.

Larry J. Feinberg is Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Curator in the Department of European Painting at the Art Institute of Chicago. His second article, which explores issues of art and perception in an investigation of Leonardo's visual puns, will be published in APOLLO next month.