At the beginning of the twentieth century, within the psychoanalytic field linked to the Freudian school, scholars noted the presence of the image of a kite in the painting The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne . Later, other scholars identified, in the mountainous formations on the left side of the painting, the figure of a male face, called the “Affogato” by Federico Zeri in one of his critical comments on the work.
This image was obtained by rotating the upper portion of Saint Anne 90° counterclockwise. Inside the oval, within the mountainous formations, one can distinguish the figure of a male face, called the “Affogato”.
In this image I highlighted the “kite (bird)” by retracing the lines present in the folds of the drapery wrapping the Virgin. By observing carefully the kite’s head in the original, it is possible to notice the detail of the eye.