Often Londoners are spoilt for choice when it comes to culture and art, so it’s brilliant that Edinburgh’s Queen’s Gallery has an exhibition to rival those of the UK capital. 30 pages of Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical studies are the content of The Mechanics of Man, which is exhibiting until October. These priceless sheets of parchment are juxtaposed with computer renderings, MRI scans and 3D visualisations used in modern medicine, demonstrating the incredible foresight and understanding of one of the best known names in art.
It is immediately apparent that da Vinci was not satisfied with simply observing the human body; he wanted to explore and understand it. The various illustrative techniques he adopted communicated the complexity of the system in question to the viewer. From using cut out sections to display layers, to displaying different orthographic projections of a single part, different process were used to really investigate and understand the body. The layering can be clearly seen in A Skull Sectioned, where an immediate sense of depth is shown through the tight hatching and precision in perspective.
Some of my favourite works from his sketchbooks had to be those of the bones, particularly the image below, entitled The Bones and Muscles of the Arm. The incredible detail and proportion were captured, as da Vinci asserts himself as a pioneer in illustrating to the viewer the interaction of the moving parts. The viewer can glance down the page to immediately understand how rotating at the elbow turns the palm face up or down. This is one of da Vinci’s many explorations that heavily preceded the time in which he lived; had his sketchbooks been published within his life, our knowledge of anatomy would be centuries ahead.
Perhaps what I found most inspirational, however, is what are now known as his thread diagrams. In these, da Vinci would try and condense the pull of muscles in a particular group to a collection of strings that represent the same effect. In The Bones and Muscles of the Shoulder, the centre right image shows the muscles slimlined to a single thread across their path of force, representing the complex relationship of parts in an inspiring simple format.
Throughout the exhibition it is apparent that da Vinci far surpassed a personal curiosity to observe and understand the human body. Instead, these meticulous drawings and pioneering visualisation techniques show a passion to communicate this information to others and drive forward our knowledge of anatomy, science and medicine. I urge anyone who gets the chance to go and see this brilliant compilation of da Vinci’s sketchbook work, which offers a snapshot into the process of one of the greatest minds the world has ever seen.
