Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, from "Characaturas by Leonardo da Vinci, from Drawings by Wincelslaus Hollar, out of the Portland Museum"

The Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, from "Characaturas by Leonardo da Vinci, from Drawings by Wincelslaus Hollar, out of the Portland Museum" by Leonardo da Vinci is a significant example of how historical artistic studies were reproduced and disseminated in later centuries. Executed using the sophisticated printmaking techniques of aquatint and etching, this piece dates not to the Italian Renaissance, but to 1786. It documents the persistent fascination with the character and features of famous artists during the Enlightenment.

Although listed under Vinci's name, the print is a secondary production, derived from drawings made by Wenceslaus Hollar in the 17th century, which themselves copied Vinci’s original studies. This chain of reproduction illustrates the importance of print culture in preserving and circulating historical portraits of influential men. The expressive lines and tonal variations achieved through the aquatint technique effectively translate the immediacy and personality found in the preparatory drawings that Vinci created centuries earlier.

The work is classified as a print within the vast collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It serves as a valuable resource for studying 18th-century graphic arts and the history of artistic biography. This particular portrait of the master artist, along with the other "characaturas" in the publication series, demonstrates the enduring legacy of Vinci’s work. As a widely circulated historical print, the image of this renowned Renaissance artist is readily available to the public and often found within public domain collections today.