Da Vinci dissected

Abstract

The largest ever exhibition devoted to Leonardo's anatomical studies, Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist, fills the fine rooms of the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace and features 87 illustrations from his original notebooks. It's rare that any exhibition yields up treasures with such largesse. Some of these anatomical drawings are well known, but unless you're a Leonardo scholar most will probably be unfamiliar: over a quarter have never been shown before. While some are conventionally framed and wall-hung, others have been positioned as island cases, so the visitor can examine both sides, and get almost as close to these extraordinary works as readers may in the great library at Windsor. The holdings of the Royal Collection extend from Leonardo's early (mainly animal) dissections of the 1480s, to his astonishing late images of dissected human bodies and ox hearts, executed between 1510 and 1513. Beautifully curated by Martin Clayton, the exhibition charts Leonardo's developing conception of the human body: from idealised notions from the classical past to what his own curiosity led him to perceive in many detailed dissections. Da Vinci's planned textbook never materialised, but the process of his unfolding understanding derived from hands-on practice reveals itself as you pass through the rooms. These few years of one man's life epitomise the intellectual journey of the Renaissance towards Enlightenment, a generation before Andreas Vesalius. Four early drawings of a bear's foot display the complexity of its bones and ligaments in exquisite detail, exposing its functional similarity to the human foot, yet its irrevocable great-clawed difference. A later drawing reveals da Vinci pondering the mechanics of weight-bearing, balance, and tension in the human equivalent. The sectioned human skull with its three Aristotelean cerebral ventricles (idealised and non-existent) contrasts with the later perfect vertebral drawings, and magnificent explorations of the ventricles, valves, and eddies of the ox heart. At the centre of the exhibition is the detailed post-mortem study of a 100-year-old man, whom da Vinci had met in a Florentine hospital, probably in 1507–08. The old man had died sitting up in bed, and da Vinci examined his body to find “the cause of so sweet a death”. Besides being a brilliant artist and engineer, his drawings make clear that da Vinci had the makings of a top-flight pathologist: he described narrowing of the arteries, cirrhosis of the liver, and portal hypertension. It's staggering to think that these images were created half a millennium ago. Of course, we come to them with our own preconceptions, and nowhere is this more palpable than in the small rooms off the main galleries, where key Leonardo works are placed beside modern anatomical models, highlighting not only his acuity of observation, but the plastic stereotypes and received wisdom of our own era. Another room provides access to the Royal Collection's new Leonardo app, featuring all the images in the exhibition and more, together with a translation facility. At a click Leonardo's curious mirror-writing is transformed into modern type, positioned exactly where his script lies in the original, providing a revelation of meaning and demonstrating the inter-relationship of his words and images. One cannot fail to notice Leonardo's affinity for structural and organic analogy: the spine is likened to a column of stone blocks; muscles appear like rigging; the thickening of arteries is like the pulp of oranges; the scalp, skull, and dura, to the layers of an onion; the heart? a nut from which germinates the tree of the vessels. Occasionally, one may almost catch his tone of voice in Leonardo's personal memos: his packing list for a journey, a note naming his model: “arm of Francesco the Miniaturist”, or his delightful tabulation of syllables on a sheet where he considers the shaping of the oral cavity by mouth, lips, and tongue for enunciation. If, like me, you have an interest in the history of anatomy, in Leonardo himself, or in the history of drawing, you will find it hard to leave the Gallery. Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London, UK, from May 4 to Oct 7, 2012 http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/exhibitions/leonardo-da-vinci-anatomistListen to medical experts talk about Leonardo's drawings at http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/exhibitions/leonardo-da-vinci-anatomist/audioCatalogue Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist by Martin Clayton, Ron Philo. Royal Collection Publications, 2012. £19.95Royal Collection's iPad app Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomy from iTunes £9.99 Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London, UK, from May 4 to Oct 7, 2012 http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/exhibitions/leonardo-da-vinci-anatomist Listen to medical experts talk about Leonardo's drawings at http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/exhibitions/leonardo-da-vinci-anatomist/audio Catalogue Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist by Martin Clayton, Ron Philo. Royal Collection Publications, 2012. £19.95 Royal Collection's iPad app Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomy from iTunes £9.99 eyJraWQiOiI4ZjUxYWNhY2IzYjhiNjNlNzFlYmIzYWFmYTU5NmZmYyIsImFsZyI6IlJTMjU2In0.eyJzdWIiOiIyOTY1MDY4ZGVmNDczYTljZjdmODJkMTZjMTExMjkyNiIsImtpZCI6IjhmNTFhY2FjYjNiOGI2M2U3MWViYjNhYWZhNTk2ZmZjIiwiZXhwIjoxNjU5MzQxNTkzfQ.CmC7AOUfhbz-MI1M9mJTAKIVbrrC8XRHrUIBJrxbiMxLYgD-d73SofgjIRTcJVz8K5DJTlS9ViGUro0x-DBNQXuQPYEFo5EOc44rdeMvN9qkb1KFon_CenkB4ej06NpDDxSXyM9K5viPjQUufwuLfVUjs1bY125Rhau8_N9XPfSyGEqTgWAJQYEp5EV6IeYIajYTSyWUZwLo_MV9A0MDOiGXnbuUDdqzkhhngOyzC9H7RNW5MDwd_MYlOuHKpKMI1j_4OOvCkXZCmop9Hte6XAWMn-igdS_pONKU9P0lp8qbfymuONq291dlOJFmRDo-6_WZ_xSd0nsYyS1FcO9kQg Download .mp4 (14.79 MB) Help with .mp4 files Supplementary videoRoyal Collection curator Martin Clayton introduces the largest ever exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical drawings, ‘Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist'