Leonardo da Vinci passed away in 1519. He was only sixty seven years old. His fame as a famous artist by this time had already spread throughout Europe. However, there is one side of his life, which then was not known to the public. Few people knew how much Leonardo da Vinci was interested in anatomy. His scientific research in this direction was practically unknown to anyone.
Even in the immediate surroundings of Leonardo da Vinci, anatomy at that time did not meet with the due interest and understanding. This situation continued until the end of the nineteenth - early twentieth centuries. It was at this time that Leonardo da Vinci's discoveries in anatomy were thoroughly studied. Only after the scientists conducted a thorough analysis of his scientific works, looked at thousands and thousands of pages of records of the great artist of the Renaissance, it became clear that his scientific activity is no less important than art.
Unknown Pages of the Life of Leonardo da Vinci
Anatomy, optics, geology, botany, hydrodynamics, etc. - all these sciences occupied a lot of space in his life, giving way only to painting. This talented creator had a reputation as an archetypal man living in the Renaissance - an artist who occasionally engaged in science.
However, for Leonardo da Vinci himself, anatomy, like the rest of his scientific activity, was no less important than painting. The last ten years, he did not begin to write new paintings. From 1508 to 1513, the artist mainly devoted himself to science, only occasionally returning to canvases that had begun in previous years.
More than other sciences
Of all the scientific research at this time, Leonardo da Vinci was especially interested in anatomy. For several years he worked actively with corpses, carefully opening them for a more accurate understanding of the human physical structure.
Possessing the outstanding talent of the artist and the expressive writing style of Leonardo da Vinci in the field of anatomy, he was able to create one of the most advanced studies of his time. He even prepared the work for publication, but did not manage to realize his intention. If his book had been published, then the study of the physical structure of man could have gone a step further, so great was the contribution to the development of the anatomy of Leonardo da Vinci. Unfortunately, after his death, all the records and sketches created by this great man, which remained among his personal documents, were hidden from the world for four hundred years.
Versatility
Until now, many of the talents of this person, infinitely gifted, remain a mystery to us. In his youth, while living in Florence, he worked as an apprentice of one of the most famous Italian artists - Andrea del Verrocchio. Leonardo patronized the Medici family. Near the place of his work was another art workshop - maestro Antonio del Pollayolo, author of the engraving "Battle of the Nudes." Pollaiolo became one of the first painters of the Renaissance, who, studying in the anatomical theater, closely studied the human muscular system. Chroniclers believe that it was his paintings that became the first lessons for the young Leonardo da Vinci.
A new approach to the physical structure of man
Anatomy by Renaissance artists was perceived as an auxiliary tool in order to have a correct picture of the body. That is why they paid great attention only to the muscular system. However, they studied, unlike Leonardo da Vinci, anatomy briefly, since the structure of the internal organs of the person they were practically not interested in. It is known that Pollayolo personally performed autopsy. However, he was also more involved in the anatomy of muscles, and therefore the chest, skull and abdominal cavity were not affected.
Initial interest
If at the very beginning of his scientific activity Leonardo da Vinci did the same as Pollayolo, then in subsequent years he gradually began to consider the physical structure of man not only as an application to his favorite painting or sculpture.
In general, the whole anatomy covers the whole life of this great artist. Historians attribute its first manuscript to the year 1484, and the last to 1515. Probably still in Florence, Leonardo, who first visited the anatomical theater, began to perform autopsy. The first he made in the hospital of Santa Maria Nova. Here, many other Florentine artists, for example, Michelangelo, also studied the muscular structure of man.
For them, the main practical guidance was the scientific work of Mondino de Lucci, who lived long before Leonardo da Vinci - "Anatomy". For his method, many generations of pathologists, as well as artists, were exposed to the person, and this process took several days to complete in Italy’s hot climate.
It was believed that on the first day it was necessary to open the stomach, then the chest, on the third - the heart, and on the fourth - the limbs. The study of the head began with the dissection of the scalp, then the skull was opened, after which the brain was examined, and then the base of the skull. During this period of his life, Leonardo created his first schematic anatomical sketches of transverse sections of legs. Realizing the complexity of the autopsy, Leonardo considered his observations to be the basis for studying the structure of the human body.
Records of the “crazy" genius
Since almost all of Leonardo’s works are diaries, the entries in them were kept peculiar. They represent a kind of dialogue that the author conducted with an imaginary interlocutor and where he defends his opinion, while citing fairly strong evidence. In addition, his manuscripts contain Leonardo’s instructions to himself, as well as arguments that can be directly connected with philosophy.
He was interested in the heart, musculoskeletal system, skeleton and muscles. Leonardo was the first to correctly and surprisingly accurately draw the forms and, most importantly, the proportions of all the components of the human bone system. All previous skeleton images, as a rule, were conditional, schematic or very primitive.
Only based on my own experience
Leonardo attached great importance to experience, since he studied practically everything on his own. He, reading books, then tested his theory in practice. This ingenious creator believed that everything should be created "based on experience." In all aspects considered by Leonardo da Vinci, the scientist, anatomy is paramount. Moreover, almost everywhere in his records, the search for the only right answer can be traced. Leonardo, who believed that truth can be found guided only by logic or scientific observations, categorically did not recognize "speculative" theories. Therefore, in the basis of all his research, including knowledge of the structure of man, he put such a fundamental science as mathematics.
Mistakes and fallacies
According to scientists, the famous picture of Leonardo da Vinci, which depicts human anatomy, is incredibly accurate, though with one exception regarding the female reproductive system. But this is understandable, since in the Renaissance, an autopsy of female corpses was problematic.
Despite the fact that this Italian artist studied anatomy only in order to better improve his paintings, which depict the bodies of people, he managed to attract more attention to this discipline.
Genius in everything, Leonardo tried to understand how the human mechanism “works”. According to scientists, he looked at the people around him just like a mechanic sees a car. The fact is that, depicting human nature in his painting or sculpture, the artist wanted to be as believable as possible, because this would allow him to be not only very realistic, but in general - a special, memorable creator.
Anatomy in sketches
This Florentine artist not only created sketches of human body parts or muscle groups, but also showed them in his sketches in section. In addition, each figure was accompanied by the necessary records for understanding. And surely Leonardo mirrored them, because he owned this method perfectly. It is the latter that adds complexity to study, complicating the work of scientists, painstakingly studying the scientific heritage of da Vinci. Today, four centuries later, all of his recordings and sketches are carefully digitized and presented to the public. Looking at them, we can definitely say that the merits of Leonardo da Vinci in the anatomy are enormous, since it was he who managed to thoroughly study the human body in his time.
At the same time, the artist and scientist did not devote so many sketches and notes to any organ, with the exception of the eye only, as to the heart. At the same time, he refuted the Galenian idea that veins originate from this organ. In addition, Leonardo da Vinci opposed the theory of two ventricles, quite rightly believing that the valves divide the heart into departments. I must say that the Master had no idea about the circulatory system when he conducted the research.
Significance of the contribution
This Florentine genius is considered the founder of a science called dynamic anatomy. After Galen for thirteen centuries, almost no new research was done on the structure of the human body, and therefore his work was considered a dogma. The first anatomical observations of da Vinci are similar in nature to the writings of Avicenna, while the latter are Vesalius.
By making drugs with his own hands, the great Master introduced everything new into the study of internal organs. It was he who invented the glass model for the study of heart valves. The artist was the first to make cuts of the bones of the skeleton up and down, thereby determining its proportions. Leonardo da Vinci's contribution to anatomy is hard to overestimate. It was he who became the author of the first images of human organs from a variety of perspectives. He called his drawings dimonstrazioni.
Achievements
Leonardo was the first in the history of the science of anatomy who suggested that the human sacrum does not consist of three, but of five vertebrae, he was able to correctly describe its angle of inclination of the sacrum. He was also the first to consider such anatomical features of our body as the inclination or bending of the ribs, which are very important for understanding the mechanism of respiration, as well as the inclination of the pelvis.
It was Leonardo who was able to correctly calculate that there are twenty-five bones in our foot, while he was not afraid to go into confrontation with the works of Avicenna and Galen, who believed that there were twenty-six of them. The artist was the first to correctly draw articular surfaces. In addition, Leonardo was able to describe a number of anatomical features of the human skeleton associated with our upright posture: for example, the oblique position of the femur in relation to the vertical.
His anatomical manuscripts, which are utterances, have been available to scientists for many centuries. And although today science confirms some of them, while others refutes, such as his awkward theory of blood, nevertheless, despite certain errors in research, it is difficult to overestimate Leonardo da Vinci's contribution to anatomy as a science.
Harmony of life
Thanks to Leonardo da Vinci, anatomy and medicine today have stepped far forward. However, he was completely negative about the doctors. Being an outstanding person, this artist and scientist saw nobody like the inability and ignorance of the then doctors.
Today, all of his sketches are the property of the British Royal Collection - the British Royal Collection. Modern anatomy, revolving around new imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging or studying the structure of a person at the microscopic level, of course, has gone a long way. Such areas of heights were not accessible to Leonardo, however, the Florentine artist still managed to achieve what scientists came to only after a few decades.
For example, his sketches depicting human embryos are almost completely consistent with what ultrasound shows today, and the images of the shoulder made by da Vinci look almost the same as their modern three-dimensional visualizations.
Much of what Leonardo did, for sure, reflected the essence of things as it was proved many decades after it was introduced by the great Florentine Renaissance painter.