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Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

The muscles and tendons of the sole of the foot (recto); The muscles of the lower leg (verso) c.1510-11

Recto: Pen and ink over some stylus. Verso: Pen and ink over traces of black chalk | 29.5 x 20.0 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 919010

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  • A folio from Leonardo's 'Anatomical Manuscript A'.

    Recto: four studies of the sole of a left foot, showing muscles and tendons; notes on the drawings.

    The principal drawing above is an oblique view of the sole of the foot, with the plantar aponeurosis (the thick connective tissue that supports the arch of the foot) removed. Leonardo emphasises the muscles abductor hallucis, with its origin on the calcaneus or heel-bone and insertion on the first phalanx of the big toe, and flexor digitorum brevis, originating on the calcaneus then dividing into four tendons, each splitting around the tendons of flexor digitorum longus to insert on the second phalanges of the other toes. The medial and lateral plantar nerves are also shown, running parallel to flexor digitorum brevis, and Leonardo’s dissection technique was precise enough to reveal the fine communications between branches of those nerves.

    Below, the nerves have been removed, abductor hallucis cut, and flexor digitorum brevis reduced in size (but not to threads), to show elements of the ‘second layer’. The penetration of the tendons of flexor digitorum brevis by those of flexor digitorum longus parallels the arrangement of the tendons in the fingers that so impressed Leonardo in RCIN 919009r. He thus noted that ‘the hand is to the arm as the foot is to the leg’, and reminded himself to make a series of drawings of the foot equivalent to those of the hand:

    "Draw a diagram of this foot with the bones alone, then leave in place the membrane that clothes them and draw a simple diagram of the nerves, and then on the same bones draw one of the tendons, and then one of the veins and arteries together. And finally a single diagram that contains arteries, veins, nerves, tendons, muscles and bones."

    By ‘the membrane that clothes [the bones]’, it is unlikely that Leonardo meant the periosteum, the thin membrane that covers the outer surface of all the bones. Each bone is connected to the adjacent bones by capsules that contain synovial fluid; these capsules are attached to the periosteum, to the ligaments and to the tendons, and with age the ligaments become more accentuated and can spread out to dominate the complicated anatomy of the region. During dissection this continuum of capsules, ligaments and tendons tends to come away as a continuous entity, and this is probably the ‘membrane’ that Leonardo refers to.

    *

    Verso: the left leg and foot, seen from just above the knee; the left leg and foot, raised on the toes, drawn to show the action of the calf muscle; two small diagrams.

    The main drawing depicts the medial (inside) aspect of the left leg, with the calf muscles, gastrocnemius and soleus, prominent. Leonardo treated the lateral and medial portions of gastrocnemius as distinct muscles, and recognised that these unite with soleus in the calcaneal (Achilles) tendon; he thus asks why there are ‘three’ muscles when one would suffice, and indeed some anatomists now describe soleus and the two portions of gastrocnemius as three portions of a single muscle, triceps surae.

    The structures running behind the medial malleolus or ankle include the tendon of flexor digitorum longus, the tibial nerve, the posterior tibial artery between these two, and the tendon of tibialis posterior. The tendon of tibialis anterior is prominent along the front contour of the ankle, with that of extensor hallucis longus passing along the upper contour of the foot to insert on the big toe. Much of the abductor hallucis muscle has been removed from the foot in order to show the tendon of tibialis posterior passing along the sole.

    At centre right is a discussion of the statics of standing on the ball of the foot. Leonardo states that the ball of the foot and the heel are effectively equidistant from the axis of the ankle, that the pull exerted by the calf muscle must therefore be equal to the weight supported on the ball of the foot, and thus that the force felt at the joint of the ankle is twice that of the weight supported on the foot. (He makes a similar calculation on 919008r, though there he states that the distance from the ankle to the ball of the foot is twice the distance from the ankle to the heel.) In the brief note alongside the drawing he describes the relaxation of the gastrocnemius muscle, stating that it disgonfiera, literally ‘deflates’. This is a reflection of the ancient physiology of the muscles that explained their contraction and relaxation as due to inflation and deflation (cf. 919017).

    Text from M. Clayton and R. Philo, Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist, London 2012
    Provenance

    Bequeathed to Francesco Melzi; from whose heirs purchased by Pompeo Leoni, c.1582-90; Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel, by 1630; Probably acquired by Charles II; Royal Collection by 1690

  • Medium and techniques

    Recto: Pen and ink over some stylus. Verso: Pen and ink over traces of black chalk

    Measurements

    29.5 x 20.0 cm (sheet of paper)


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