Anatomy of leonardo da vinci

The Renaissance was a remarkable period of European culture. It was a time when artists, scholars, merchants and politicians were bursting with the desire to glorify human achievement in the spirit of the ancient Greeks and Romans. This time was called the “rebirth”. At that same time, a boy named Leonardo was born. Near the town of Vinci, Leonardo was born to Ser Piero and a servant. Little is known about his mother and some historians think that her name was Caterina {Phillips}. They were not married making him an illegitimate boy. As he grew older, Leonardo studied the human body. He wanted to know two things, how to draw a perfect human with proportion and he wanted to know what mysteries the human had to bestow.

Leonardo’s interest in anatomy probably began in Verrocchio’s workshop. At this time many artist only wanted to learn anatomy to get the beauty of a painting but he wanted to find the mysteries of the human. He wanted to know what the bones in the skeleton looked like, how they were connected and how they moved. He wanted to understand the muscles that covered the body. Also, he wanted to know how the lungs worked, how the eyes could see and how the blood moved through the veins. Understanding the body helped him appreciate it and this unique knowledge helped him to make his paintings so lifelike {Phillips}. While in Milan, he began dissecting bodies. Also, at this time, dissecting was illegal and he did this at his own risk. By his own count; he dissected bodies of more than 30 men and women of all ages {Phillips}. He also took a risk because he could’ve caught the infections from the corpses. He states that he was sharing his home with “ corpses flayed, stripped of flesh, and terrible to look at.” Also, he said, “ The heart, is a muscle of great strength, much stronger than the other muscles. The blood which returns when the heart opens again is not the same as which closes the valves” he also dissected the animal’s bodies. He dissected a lion calling it the king of the beast with senses much stronger than a human’s. He dissected a bear and an ape to see how different the foot of a bear is to an ape’s. He divided the animal into two great classes- one of which have their skeletons inside them and those who have it outside {Muntz, 82-84}.

Leonardo’s Virtruvian Man was created in 1490. It shows the proportions of a man’s body first standing inscribed in a square and then with feet and arms outspread. It is a great example of proportion. Found in his notebooks, Leonardo basically copied Vitruvius but he points out “ if you open the legs so as to reduce the stature by one-fourteenth and open and raise the arm so that your middle finger touch the line through the top of the head, know that the centre of the extremities of the outspread limbs will be umbilicus, and the space between the legs will make and equilateral triangle. Below are the words that came with the picture-

“Vitruvius, the architect, says in his work on architecture that the measurements of the human body are distributed by Nature as follows that is that 4 fingers make 1 palm, and 4 palms make 1 foot, 6 palms make 1 cubit; 4 cubits make a man's height. And 4 cubits make one pace and 24 palms make a man; and these measures he used in his buildings. If you open your legs so much as to decrease your height 1/14 and spread and raise your arms till your middle fingers touch the level of the top of your head you must know that the centre of the outspread limbs will be in the navel and the space between the legs will be an equilateral triangle. The length of a man's outspread arms is equal to his height From the roots of the hair to the bottom of the chin is the tenth of a man's height; from the bottom of the chin to the top of his head is one eighth of his height; from the top of the breast to the top of his head will be one sixth of a man. From the top of the breast to the roots of the hair will be the seventh part of the whole man. From the nipples to the top of the head will be the fourth part of a man. The greatest width of the shoulders contains in itself the fourth part of the man. From the elbow to the tip of the hand will be the fifth part of a man; and from the elbow to the angle of the armpit will be the eighth part of the man. The whole hand will be the tenth part of the man; the beginning of the genitals marks the middle of the man. The foot is the seventh part of the man. From the sole of the foot to below the knee will be the fourth

part of the man. From below the knee to the beginning of the genitals will be the fourth part of the man. The distance from the bottom of the chin to the nose and from the roots of the hair to the eyebrows is, in each case the same, and like the ear, a third of the face.”

This shows Leonardo’s knowledge of proportion.

As you can see, Leonardo not only wanted to study anatomy for his art but he wanted to know how the body worked, the make up of the bones, how the heart worked and may other things. Although he didn’t learn all the mysteries of the human body, he showed comprehension of it therefore making him a true “Renaissance Man”.

“ If you do not rest upon the good foundation of nature, you will labor with little honor and less profit. Those who take for their standards anyone but nature - the mistress of all masters - weary themselves in vain.”