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Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

The muscles and nerves of the leg and head c.1485-90

Metalpoint (faded) and pen and ink on blue-grey prepared paper | 21.3 x 30.0 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 912626

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  • Eight anatomical studies of a man's leg; below these are two heads, one of which is in profile to to the left showing the skull and bones of the neck; the other one is turned away to the left, showing the top of the spine; a section of the skull seen fom above, with the various faculties written in; vertically, a drawing of a mausoleum on a hill with a road leading up to it, and a plan. At the top of the page are the Arabic numerals written in order.

    The study at upper right, reinforced in pen and ink, depicts the front of the thigh with the sartorius and gracilis muscles cut and shown as stumps at the top of the thigh and the knee. This has exposed some of the adductor and quadratus femoris muscles, and the femoral nerve and vessels as they begin to course into the adductor (Hunter’s) canal. The accompanying note states: ‘I have lifted off the muscle a n [sartorius] which is half a braccio long [30 cm – the longest muscle in the human body] and I have uncovered r t [rectus femoris]. Now attend to what lies below m o [vastus lateralis].’ This drawing and note probably constitute the earliest evidence for human dissection in Leonardo’s anatomical investigations.

    Much of the rest of the sheet is filled with studies of the leg, mostly in faded metalpoint, with particular emphasis on the branches of the femoral nerve. In the studies at centre right and far left, the sciatic nerve can be seen dividing into the tibial nerve in the midline of the leg and the common fibular nerve laterally. At lower right is a study of the head and neck, with portions of the temporalis muscle indicated and trapezius and sternocleidomastoid reduced in width for diagrammatic clarity. In the sketch at lower left, trapezius is reduced to a pair of threads meeting in a large inverted ‘V’ at the back of the cranium but seems to travel around to the front of the neck.

    The horizontal section through the head at lower centre shows the orbits and the cerebral ventricles. In medieval physiology, these ventricles were thought to be three bulbs, arranged in a row, that housed the mental faculties (cf. RCIN 912603). The first was where the mind’s ‘raw material’ was gathered – the senso comune, where the sensory nerves converged, together with imagination and fantasy; the second was where this information was processed, through reasoning and so on; and the third was where the results were stored, in the memory. Leonardo was unconvinced by this sequence, and repeatedly tried different arrangements. Here the optic nerves alone travel to the first ventricle, labelled imprensiva and inteletto (intellect); the middle ventricle, to which the auditory nerves travel, is labelled senso comune and volonta (will); the third ventricle is labelled memoria (memory), as usual. The imprensiva was the ‘receptor of impressions’ and its distinction from the senso comune is not entirely clear; but Leonardo clearly wished to accord a special status to visual information, with the optic nerves travelling directly to the site of the intellect, and the other sensory nerves passing to a more generalised 'clearing house' for the brain’s activity.

    Text adapted from M. Clayton and R. Philo, Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist, London 2012, no. 5
    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

    Metalpoint (faded) and pen and ink on blue-grey prepared paper

    Measurements

    21.3 x 30.0 cm (sheet of paper)


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