The Queen Opens Da Vinci Diamond Jubilee Exhibition In May
The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace is staging the first display ever of its vast collection of Leonardo da Vinci anatomical drawings. Leonardo da Vinci has long been recognised as one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance but the palace exhibition will also show him as highly perceptive medical anatomist, who was way ahead of his time.
The Queen’s collection holds the worlds best assemblage of his drawings ever produced. Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist opens on 4 May and will be the largest-ever exhibition of his groundbreaking studies of the human body. Between 1489 and 1513, the artist produced intricately detailed studies of bones, muscles and internal organs. These included the heart and the brain. He intended to publish his studies in a treatise on anatomy, but when he died in 1519 his anatomical research remained among his private papers, a mass of undigested and disorganised material. “The binding was effectively the archive of the drawings and it ensured that they were not circulated or published” said curator Martin Clayton. In 1900 they emerged from the binding, and we now know that they were among the most amazingly detailed and accurate anatomical drawings of all time.”And this exhibition will be the greatest opportunity since Leonardo’s death to marvel at his achievement.”
Had Da Vinci’s drawings been published, they would have transformed European knowledge of anatomy. Instead they remained within the confines of the album, effectively lost to the world until the 20th century. Exhibition curator Martin Clayton said: “The Leoni binding is a hugely important part of the 500-year story of Leonardo’s anatomical drawings. The Buckingham Palace exhibition follows closely behind the sell-out show of the artist’s rare surviving paintings at London’s National Gallery.
Leonardo left his notebooks and drawings to his assistant Francesco Melzi, whose son sold them to the sculptor Pompeo Leoni. Leoni. The anatomical drawings bound together in an album include his name alongside Leonardo’s in gold lettering on the cover: Disegni di Leonardo da Vinci restaurati da Pompeo Leoni – “Drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, preserved by Pompeo Leoni”.
The Buckingham Palace exhibition follows closely behind the sell-out show of the artist’s rare surviving paintings at London’s National Gallery. Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist opens on 4 May Buckingham Palace Visit Here