Word: leonardo
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...displays Leonardo's revolutionary anatomical drawings...
...current exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical drawings at New York City's Metropolitan Museum is, one need hardly point out, a must for almost anyone who is interested in either drawings or bodies. All the same, it is not the easiest of shows. Its predecessor, the Met's 1981 exhibition of his studies of landscape and water and plants (lent, like this one, from the Royal Library at Windsor Castle), was more open to the nonspecialist, if only because more people have mused on water currents or leaves than on the maxillary sinus...
Once again, one is confronted by that angelically ranging mind, that steely eye and that infinitely skilled hand. And though the short catalogue, by Leonardo Experts Carlo Pedretti and Kenneth Keele, can do no more than touch on the scientific and aesthetic ramifications of Leonardo's work as anatomist, it is still a useful introduction...
...Leonardo dissected bodies and drew what he found for two reasons. He wanted to systematize the scientific study of anatomy at a time-the late 15th century-when the human skin was the frontier of unknown territory. He also wanted to deepen his understanding of the muscular frame, whose shapes determine the figure and are the key to proportion and beauty. Nowhere in his work do the scientific and aesthetic impulses twine more closely. But they grew under the shadow of disgust, and to appreciate these drawings one must grasp the difficulty of making them. The anatomist had no preservatives...
...worst enemy of truth, according to Boorstin, is to keep knowledge secret. Warlike states, monopolistic guilds, and closemouthed alchemists all conspired to leave outsiders in the dark. Even Leonardo da Vinci held back the progress of anatomy by keeping to himself his detailed drawings and studies of the human body. "...Despite his consummate art, his industry, and his unexcelled powers of observation, Leonardo added only to his own knowledge, and little or nothing to the anatomical knowledge of his time. Nor were his own observations enriched as they might have been. For, as we shall see, the public forum...