Leonardo da Vinci’s Portrait of a Musician, painted around 1483 to 1487, is one of the few surviving portraits attributed to him and remains an important example of his early Milanese period. The sitter, traditionally identified as a musician because of the sheet of music held in his hand, has been linked to figures such as Franchinus Gaffurius, though the identification is not certain. The painting shows Leonardo’s interest in psychological presence rather than simple likeness, with the young man turning slightly as if caught in thought or interrupted during performance. The dark background focuses attention on the face, while the careful modeling of light and shadow gives the figure a strong sense of volume and inner life. Compared with Leonardo’s later portraits, this work is more restrained and less mysterious, but it already reveals his ability to combine observation, intellect, and emotional ambiguity in a single image.