Leonardo's Anatomical Drawings

Leonardo da Vinci

• Editorial: Dover Publications
• Año: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780486140667
• Categoría: Art
• Categoría: Artist Monographs

`It is a miracle that any one man should have observed, read, and written down so much in a single lifetime.` — Kenneth Clark, art historian and Leonardo da Vinci biographer
A perfectionist in his artwork, Leonardo da Vinci studied nature and anatomy to produce amazingly realistic paintings. Using scientific methods in his investigations of the human body — the first ever by an artist — he was able to create remarkably accurate depictions of the `ideal` figure.
This exceptional collection of 59 precise, detailed drawings reprints Leonardo's sketches, still considered the finest ever made, of the skeleton; vertebral column; skull; upper and lower extremities; cardiovascular, respiratory, and nervous systems; human embryos; and other subjects. The volume will be a welcome addition to the libraries of artists, illustrators, and scientists.

Note

THE EPITOME OF THE RENAISSANCE MAN, LEONARDO DA VINCI (1452-1519) was equally accomplished in the fields of anatomy, engineering, science, and the arts. He was born in Vinci, a village near Florence, the illegitimate son of a notary and a peasant woman. Raised mostly by his paternal grandfather, the young Leonardo displayed great natural talent that would later be recognized as sheer genius. His artistic and intellectual accomplishments were many, and he excelled as a painter, sculptor, architect, and engineer. In 1467 Leonardo entered the studio of sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio as an apprentice, acquiring a wide variety of skills in the arts before working as an artist and technical advisor on architecture and engineering in Milan.

Over the course of the next several years, Leonardo traveled between Florence and central Italy, working as a map maker and civil engineer. Around 1503 he settled back in Florence, where he completed some of his most famous paintings, the Mona Lisa foremost among them. He also continued his studies of anatomy and biology, for which he dissected human cadavers to further study and sketch the human form and comprehend its functions. In 1516 Leonardo left Italy to become architectural advisor to King Francis I of France.

In his later ...