In this drawing we see the ox and ass that in legend breathed on the newborn Christ to keep him warm; the animals, posed differently, are present in the right background of the Adoration of the Magi (Florence, Uffizi). Surrounding them here are studies in scratchy leadpoint of a horse or ass, its head down as if to graze; at upper left the bending rider twists his head to gaze upwards, perhaps at the Star of Bethlehem. The stains of burnt umber suggest that the sheet was in use in the workshop while painting was taking place. Melzi's number 36.

This is one of several sheets of studies that Leonardo made towards a composition of the Adoration of the Shepherds, possibly for a commission he received in January 1478 for an altarpiece (of unspecified subject) for the chapel of San Bernardo in the Palazzo della Signoria, Florence. That commission was apparently not fulfilled by Leonardo; instead, by March 1481 at the latest, he began an ambitious painting of the Adoration of the Magi, for the church of San Donato a Scopeto outside Florence. The last recorded payment to Leonardo was made in September 1481, and probably soon afterwards he left Florence, abandoning the panel as an underpainting. Inevitably, Leonardo’s sketches for the Shepherds informed his ideas for the Magi. All the related studies at Windsor are of animals, perhaps retained by Leonardo for future reference: even at this early stage of his career, his approach was to make a range of studies of relevant subject matter in addition to compositional sketches. See also RCIN 912324, 912325, 912308.

Text adapted from Leonardo da Vinci: A life in drawing, London, 2018