He is the author of the most famous painting in the world, immortalizing with the Mona Lisa the most enigmatic smile ever painted. Praised for his talents as a painter, an object of fascination for his gifts as an inventor, engineer and designer of machines such as the tank, and haloed by a mysterious genius in particular for having drawn a propeller plan for helicopter half a millennium before such devices saw the light of day, Leonardo da Vinci continues, even today, to reveal the extent of his talents.
Through the exhibition “Leonardo da Vinci and anatomy, the mechanics of life” *, which opens this Friday at Château du Clos Lucéin Amboise (Indre-et-Loire), his final resting place, the public can discover the talents of the Florentine master as an anatomist, who was able to penetrate the secrets of the human body with disturbing precision.
Dissection, proportion and 3D
When he became interested in human anatomy, “Leonardo da Vinci compiled the work of his predecessors, but before him, the study of anatomy was very superficial”, explains Pascal Brioist, co-curator of the exhibition, professor of Modern History at the University of Tours and member of the Center for Advanced Studies of the Renaissance. “He then developed a method of three-dimensional dissection, by layers, like a scanner, and by slices, like an MRI, thus producing anatomical plates of remarkable precision, explains Dominique Le Nen, co-curator of the exhibition, university professor and orthopedic surgeon. This is why, in the course of the exhibition, we are comparing Leonardo’s drawings with modern medical imagery, in particular a representation of a spinal column, to highlight the artistic and scientific quality of his work. .
Anatomy of the shoulder, fetus in the uterus or representation breaking down the hand into superimposed layers of bones, muscles, tendons and other vessels: da Vinci draws with quasi-surgical precision the interior of the human body. How could he reproduce it with such accuracy? “By his mathematical approach, which pushes him to measure everything, to take an interest in the proportions of the body, as we can see with his Vitruvian man, and to consider that the body can be read in mathematical language. In addition, legend has it that he dissected corpses in secret, which is false, insists Pascal Brioist. He worked in hospitals, and with the help of doctors, in agreement with the political and religious authorities; he attended dissections and practiced them himself, for thirty years, traces the historian. Using surgical instruments, he lifted the flesh and studied organs, muscles, tendons, nerves, vessels and bones to understand the mechanics of the body”.
A mechanism whose secret he never ceased to seek to unlock, using “his talents as an engineer, architect, mathematician and sculptor to undertake his exploration of anatomy, underlines Professor Le Nen. Thus, in one of his representations of the hand, he details the system of digital pulleys, which allow it to be closed, and he was able half a millennium ago to draw them and determine which ones were essential to functional mechanics. from the hand. It’s amazing “.
Visionary and “father of modern anatomy”
During the last five centuries, has the scientific work constituted by Leonardo da Vinci made it possible to instruct long lines of anatomists, doctors and surgeons? Can we consider him as the inventor of modern anatomy? “We would like to believe it, the corpus he composed is so extraordinary: before Leonardo, we have no drawing of this quality, recalls Professor Le Nen, he is a pioneer! But “his anatomical work never produced a published work, they were ignored for a long time and were only rediscovered at the very end of the 19th century, specifies Pascal Brioist. As such, we cannot really speak of da Vinci’s legacy in anatomy”.
However, “for the scientific product that he left to posterity, I still consider him the father of modern anatomy, says Professor Le Nen. He was a visionary precursor of anatomical knowledge and its 3D representation. There, we see how he was several ultra-talented characters in one: an anatomist scientist, an artist and an engineer. A feeling shared by Pascal Brioist, who wants to “believe in this idea of cross-fertilization, between the worlds of the sculptor, the mechanic, the painter: da Vinci was all that”. And “each hat fed the others, with this increased capacity to reproduce with unprecedented and extraordinary precision for the time organs like the hand, yet extremely complex, abounds Professor Le Nen. As an orthopedic surgeon, I feel an extraordinary feeling of admiration for the character, for his scientific work, but also for the artistic quality of his drawings: the way he has transcribed this scientific content is art ! »
An art to be admired through a journey combining books, annotated drawings and models. But also more surprising installations, like the 3D representation of ” The Lord’s Supper », or the reconstruction of a dissection room, where da Vinci explored the human body. “We recreated it, drawing inspiration from the Italian hospitals where Leonardo visited, specifies Pascal Brioist. And she should not leave indifferent! »
* Exhibition “Leonardo da Vinci and anatomy, the mechanics of life”, at the Château du Clos Lucé in Amboise, from June 9 to September 17, 2023.