| Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (1452 – 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance. His study of anatomy, originally pursued for his training as an artist, had grown by the 1490s into an independent area of research. He sought to comprehend the human body’ physical working as a creation of nature. For two decades, he did practical work in anatomy in various Italian towns. By his own count Leonardo dissected 30 corpses in his lifetime.
His early anatomical studies dealt chiefly with the skeleton and muscles; yet even at the outset, Leonardo combined anatomical with physiological research. From observing the static structure of the body, Leonardo proceeded to study the role of individual parts of the body in mechanical activity. This led him finally to the study of the internal organs; among them he probed most deeply into the brain, heart, and lungs as the “motors” of the senses and of life. His findings from these studies were recorded in the famous anatomical drawings. During his lifetime, Leonardo’s medical investigations remained private. He did not consider himself a professional in the field of anatomy, and he neither taught nor published his findings. He did publish some of his observations on human proportion. Leonardo considered the proportional theories of Vitruvius, the 1st-century-BCE Roman architect. Imposing the principles of geometry on the configuration of the human body, Leonardo demonstrated that the ideal proportion of the human figure corresponds with the forms of the circle and the square. In his illustration of this theory, the so-called Vitruvian Man, Leonardo demonstrated that when a man places his feet firmly on the ground and stretches out his arms, he can be contained within the four lines of a square, but when in a spread-eagle position, he can be inscribed in a circle.
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- Leonardo da Vinci
- English
Tip!
If possible, implement this gathering in the biology lab where students have the opportunity to examine skeletons and compare them to the drawings.