Abstract
No other subject engaged Leonardo more than his work on the anatomy of the human body. It was the subject in which he argued most forcibly for the importance of independent observation allied to original thought. This process he called “experience” of the world around him “gained through the senses” was his starting point for new understanding. Reason and contemplation brought to bear on the sensed experience allowed the development of a hypothesis. Experimental testing and mathematical proof then gave authority to that hypothesis, the veracity of which could be stated. This approach, proclaimed by Leonardo as essential for rational progress, presages the modern method of science.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Experience is the term used quite specifically by Leonardo to distance his testable approach to understanding from that of the majority of academics, who were happy to quote the work of others.
- 2.
Marius’s speech to the Quirites in Sallust, Bellum Iugurthinum, ch. 85, §25.
- 3.
C.A. 119v.
- 4.
Ibid.
- 5.
Quod optimus medicus sit quoque philosophus. Khun, Karl Gottleib. Leipzig reference I 54. Claudia Galeni Poera Omnia. Leipzig C. Cnobloch 1821–33 rpt. Hildesheim. Georg Olens 1964–5.
- 6.
Andrea Carlino, Books of the Body. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), §4.
- 7.
Galen, De anatomicis administrationobus, KII 284 and 287.
- 8.
Andrea Carlino, Books of the Body, §6.
- 9.
Berengario da Carpi, Commentaria, fol. IIIv. A metaphor used famously by Isaac Newton.
- 10.
Masterful as Vesalius’s work was, the lack of obvious practical application slowed its appreciation outside the major teaching institutions (Andrea Carlino).
- 11.
Berengario da Carpi, Commentaria, fols. VIv and VIIr.
- 12.
RL 12597 recto.
- 13.
RL 19037 verso.
- 14.
RL 19070 verso.
- 15.
There are numerous examples of Vitruvian forms relating man to the geometrical shapes of the square and the circle. The image by Leonardo da Vinci happens to be the most famous.
- 16.
A brief, early fourteenth century (1316) affirmation of Galenic traditional anatomy, flavored by the description of the dissection of two female bodies between January and March of 1315.
- 17.
This book was in many ways a commentary upon Galenic anatomy.
- 18.
Quaderni d’Anatomia I.2, recto. Royal Library Windsor.
- 19.
J. Playfair McMurrich, Leonardo da Vinci, the Anatomist. (Baltimore, Williams & Wilkins [published for the Carnegie Institution of Washington], 1930), 8.
- 20.
Hanna Kiel, ed., The Bernard Berenson Treasury. (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1962), 75–7.
- 21.
Ibid., 64.
- 22.
Martin Kemp, The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 18.
- 23.
Colombo had been a surgeon in Padua before taking up the post of “Master of Anatomy and Surgery” in Pisa in 1544. He had been invited there by the Duke Cosimo. Colombo went to Rome to teach at the papal university, the Sapienza, initially in 1547 and permanently 1 year later. In a 1548 letter to Cosimo, he stated that his reason for leaving was “to pursue my dissections and supervise the painters.” He also referred to his intended collaboration with “the greatest painter in the world” (Michelangelo) on a proposed book of anatomy. As with Leonardo, however, the planned treatise on anatomy did not materialize. Colombo did produce De re anatomica Libri XV, which was published a few months after his death in 1559. Its sole illustration is the frontispiece, which features the presence of Michelangelo at the dissection table. There are further hints that Michelangelo’s involvement in anatomy was significant. Passarotti’s Michelangelo Conducting an Anatomy Lesson illustrates an array of artists gathered around the master. Included in the picture are Andrea del Sarto, sitting on a stool to the left of Michelangelo; Sebastien del Piombo, at his right; and Baccio Bandinelli, with his back to the viewer. Raphael is to be found facing forward, supporting the hand of the flayed corpse. The Accademia del Disegno in Florence, of which Michelangelo had been nominal head, recognized his knowledge of anatomy as a major contributing factor to the perfection of his art.
- 24.
Vasari, Giorgio. Lives of the Artists. Volumes I & II. London: Penguin Classics, 1987.
- 25.
Kemp, Marvellous Works, 17.
- 26.
RL 12597 recto.
- 27.
Carmen C. Bambach, Leonardo da Vinci, Master Draftsman (New York Metropolitan Museum of Art Series). (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 236.
- 28.
Kenneth Clark, The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle. (Vol. 3, Anatomical Drawings, Edition 2). (London: Phaidon, 1969), 13.
- 29.
Paris Manuscript F folio 1.
- 30.
RL 19027 verso.
- 31.
RL 19076 verso.
- 32.
“Pouncing” is a technique whereby the drawing is dabbed with a muslin or other such cloth filled with carbon or silver dust, which passes through the holes and leaves behind an outline of the “traced” image.
- 33.
Kenneth Clark catalogue of Windsor drawings. (RL 19071 recto).
- 34.
Ibid. RL 19072 recto.
- 35.
Ibid. RL 19108 verso and RL 19109 recto.
- 36.
Ibid. RL 19002 recto.
- 37.
Zwijnenberg, Robert. The writings and drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. Order and chaos in early modern thought. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 151.
- 38.
RL 19063 verso.
- 39.
RL 19115 recto.
- 40.
RL 19009 recto.
- 41.
Tania Kovats, ed. The Drawing Book: A Survey of Drawing: The Primary Means of Expression. (London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007).
- 42.
RL 19037 verso.
- 43.
RL 19061 recto (1509–13).
- 44.
Kemp, The Marvellous Works, 279.
- 45.
RL 19084 recto.
- 46.
RL 19016 recto.
- 47.
Codex Arundel. B.M. 1r.
- 48.
RL 19070 verso.
- 49.
Ibid.
- 50.
RL 19115 recto.
- 51.
C.A. 67r.
- 52.
Part of a paraphrase from Regimen Sanitatis of Arnold of Villanova or one of the numerous modifications of that work, such as the tract of Ugo Benzo, Milan, 1481.
- 53.
Kemp, The Marvellous Works, 106.
- 54.
B.L. 151v.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag London
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wells, F.C. (2013). Leonardo, Anatomist or Natural Philosopher?. In: The Heart of Leonardo. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4531-8_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4531-8_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-4530-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-4531-8
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)