Leonardo Da Vinci Research Paper

The Importance of Leonardo da Vinci’s Anatomical Studies

The Italian Renaissance was the birthplace of many important advances in the arts, politics, and sciences, and was fueled by Humanism, the belief that humanity has unlocked potential and knowledge. During this time, many men and women came up with world-changing ideas and actions. Niccolo Machiavelli for example, wrote, The Prince, a political guide for Renaissance Patrons on how their use their wealth, social status, and patronage to help acquire an even higher social status and gain their family popularity. Ippolita Maria Sforza, the Duchess of Calabria, was a humanist scholar whose more enlightened thinking aided her husband, Alfonso the Duke of Calabria, in his courts. However

Da Vinci’s gifts to the artistic world include marvelous paintings such as the intriguing Mona Lisa, and The Last Supper, a painting that has become engraved into Christian culture for its depiction of Jesus and his disciples. Though da Vinci worked in a competitive field where artists of every medium battled for the attention of the local patrons, Leonardo became so famous for his talent that patronage was no worry for him. Da Vinci's patron list includes high social and political figures such as the Medici family, Cesare Borgia, Ludovico Sforza, and the French king, Francis I. Even today critics study Leonardo’s masterpieces and examine his skillful techniques which allowed him to easily draw realistic limbs and body features. In October, the Museum of Science-Boston included in their online exhibition of da Vinci that, “Leonardo recognized that one way to paint scenes realistically was to observe with great care how animals, people, and landscapes really looked. He was also careful to notice the differences in how an object looked when it was close by or farther away, and when it was seen in bright light or in dim light. (Museum of Science-Boston, 2016)”. Along with his impressive paintings, Leonardo is also credited with a substantial amount of anatomical drawings. The Vitruvian Man, one of his most famous drawings, is an illustration of the architect

However, had Leonardo da Vinci not taken an interest in the human body and its functions, much of the progression of knowledge might have been delayed. One of the most famous anatomical drawings by da Vinci, the Vitruvian Man, is an incredibly accurate representation human muscles and flexibility. The reason this drawing and so many others were so hauntingly accurate, was because of the method in which da Vinci used to draw them. For example, in his cranium illustrations, “he first undertook a series of detailed studies of the human skull in 1489, borrowing from the architect's rigorous technique of representing three-dimensional forms in plan, section, elevation, and perspective view. (Bambach, 2002)”. Practicing this method religiously, Leonardo would carefully etch each detail into his world changing drawings. “Anatomists in Leonardo’s time often dissected unclaimed bodies, such as of drunks and vagrants, and those bodies were more likely to be male...(Pappas, 2012)”; this being said, Leonardo’s work was mostly on the male body, however he tried very hard to figure the details of women’s bodies as well. Even though da Vinci never quite mastered the build of a woman’s figure or the respiratory system, “he was the first to show a fetus in proper position within the uterus and the first to also show a double curvature of the spine.