Drawings from the Collection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), one of the greatest figures of the Italian Renaissance, is renowned not only for the artistic mastery of his painting and drawing but for the richness of his intellect and his insatiable curiosity about all aspects of the natural and man-made world. Leonardo was among the first artists to study human anatomy in great detail, and his anatomical drawings reveal him to be a gifted observer of the human body. He studied not only living men and women but cadavers, which he dissected with painstaking care in order to draw each vessel, muscle, and organ with ultimate precision. The Royal Library at Windsor Castle houses the finest private collection of drawings in the world, and its greatest treasure is a magnificent group of more than six hundred sheets by Leonardo. Reproduced here are forty-one of his finest anatomical drawings, incorporating countless studies and commentaries in the artist's hand. The sheets, dating from 1489 to c. 1513, show the remarkable evolution, of his drawing style as well as his anatomical knowledge. Images of great beauty and scientific interest, they herald Leonardo as one of the most accomplished artists in the history of anatomy.