Seated Child Holding a Cat

This drawing is a copy of a fragmentary sheet at the Ambrosiana, Milan (inv. F. 263 Inf. n. 89 recto) ascribed to the young Leonardo da Vinci (though alternately attributed by some scholars to Cesare da Sesto), a drawing that relates to other sheets in which Leonardo played with the iconographical motif of the infant Christ holding a cat (for example British Museum inv. 1857,0110.1 and 1860,0616.98). The Morgan drawing was attributed to Lorenzo di Credi when in the Scholz collection, but it is now thought to be by some other, unidentified, follower of Leonardo. For further exploration of the iconography, see also Royal Collection, RCIN 912564, another drawing from Leonardo's circle, perhaps copying a lost drawing by the master himself.