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}.