The anatomist Leonardo da Vinci

Organized by the Royal Collection (London, United Kingdom) Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist is the largest-ever exhibition of his ground-breaking studies of the human body, which will take place at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace through October 7, 2012.

The exhibition, which takes place almost 500 years after his death, features 87 pages from Leonardo’s notebooks, including 24 sides of previously unexhibited material.

Although Leonardo is recognised as one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance, he was also one of the most original and perceptive anatomists of all time. The exhibition tells the story of his greatest challenge as he embarked upon a campaign of dissection in hospitals and medical schools to investigate bones, muscles, vessels and organs.

Among the firsts that Leonardo achieved, is the first accurate depiction of the spine in history. This beautiful drawing, dating from c.1510-11, has never been surpassed. Two years earlier Leonardo had sat with a 100-year-old man hours from death in a hospital in Florence, before dissecting him to find the cause of ‘so sweet a death’. In his post-mortem examination notes, displayed for the first time, he gives the first descriptions of cirrhosis of the liver and narrowing of the arteries in the history of medicine.

Date: October 7.
Location: The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace. London SW1A 1AA. United Kingdom.

More artworks by Leonardo here

See more artworks of the exhibition in the following slideshow: