Cartoon for the head of the infant Saint John the Baptist

The three-quarters child's head on the right is a drawing made with silver tip on paper by the Florentine painter Leonardo da Vinci, belonging to the Codex Vallardi and preserved in the department of graphic arts of the Louvre Museum in Paris.

This small drawing is a portrait of the head of a very young child. It constitutes the preparatory study at the head of the little John the Baptist present on the version preserved in the Louvre Museum of The Virgin of the Rocks, whose sponsor is the Brotherhood of the Immaculate Conception. Presumably carried out around 1483, it belongs to the last three known studies relating to this table.

All melancholy and interiority, the drawing is part of the theme appreciated by the artist of the representation of babies. All the qualities of Leonardo da Vinci's designer appear in this drawing which has subsequently undergone retouching that may have cast doubt on its autograph character.