The Culture Show at Edinburgh: Leonardo da Vinci - The Anatomist The Culture Show

behind thousands of pages of drawings and notes including a

series of startlingly accurate anatomical sketches that lay

undiscovered for hundreds of years. To coincide with this year 's

Edinburgh International Festival a new exhibition at the Queen 's

Gallery at the Palace of Holyrood shows his exquisite studies

alongside state-of-the-art modern medical imagery revealing just how

close this Renaissance genius got to the truth that lies beneath the

skin. He shines out as somebody who made

enormous strides in his field. Thinking as an engineer, trying to

understand the mechanism of the body. It is absolutely accurate.

find it quite poetic he has used movement to illustrate something

anatomical. It gives you a depth to the drawings which is technically

Vinci as a painter, but for the majority of his life he was also a

scientist designing robots, studying the property of water, endeavouring

to understand the secrets of light, but the scientific field in which he

most excelled was that of human anatomy. He first began to research

the human body to help him keep his paintings as true to nature as

possible. But the project soon took on a life of its own, when he filled

hundreds of pages of his notebooks with detailed sketches. His aim was

always to publish an illustrated treaty on the human body. But

tragically he never did. Today all of his notebooks are

scattered right across the world. And perhaps surprisingly almost all

of the anatomical ones are amongst the Royal collection 's greatest

treasures at Windsor Castle. The weird thing about them is for

hundreds of years the fruits of his research were essentially lost.

There is a wonderful story that the drawings languished for a long time

in a royal bureau, until the wife of George II, Queen Caroline, chanced

upon them. The reasons why they ended up in the Royal collection are

slightly complicated. Towards the end of the 16th century the sculptor

Pompeo Leoni bought a load of his papers and carved up, sometimes

literally, into different albums, including one that consist of about

600 sheets. This was probably acquired by Charles II sometimes

after the Civil War. Curator Martin Clayton is allowing me a rare

glimpse of these delicate works here at Windsor Castle. Before they are

packed away and transported to the exhibition in Edinburgh.

Did people in his lifetime know about the anatomical drawings?

that it is not the same as understanding their content. -- but

it is not the same. Until anatomists came along in the 18th century,

nobody really understood the content of this material, they knew there

were impressive but they did not know why. There can be no other

scientist whose work was as profoundly insightful as his was,

that has had so little impact on his chosen field. Martin has selected

for different drawings from the netbooks to give an overview of his

anatomical career -- notebooks. The first one dates from 1489. What is

astonishing is how beautiful the presentation is, to take the front

of one half and juxstapose the two sides say you can see the depth

interlacing to the searches features is a brilliant demonstration.

my batch I find it hard to get my head around the fact he drew this,

he did touch this paper. This is from the spring of 15 oh wait, he

describes observing the death of the centenarian performing a

post-mortem. The old man, a few hours before his death. Why does he

use the writing? It was easier.If we fast forward two years we find

this kind of sheet. This is from 1510, 1511, a sequence of

illustrations, deeper and deeper as he takes away individual muscles.

The density of observation and the quality of presentation you see is a

different order compared with what went before.

This final image is one of the most famous drawings he produced. It is

one of the few sheets in which he uses colour, the red chalk leaps out

at you from the page. That red, the startling use of red, gives the

foetus a sense of life, that is possibly lacking in some of the

Perhaps I am feeling especially susceptible at the moment because I

am about to become a father for the first time but that red chalk

drawing of a foetus curled up in the womb, such a ravishing, heart

stopping thing, seems to wriggle before your eyes and every single

one of those sheet is similarly animated by the alacrity of his

thoughts because each one jostles and teams with observations and

ideas and reflections, a bit like the fossilised remains of somebody's

synapses firing on all cylinders now be among the treasures at

Windsor Castle, but the first regatta work on them here in Milan.

-- but he first began work on them. He came to the city as a fully

fledged artist around 1482 and the years he spent in this part of Italy

would prove crucial. He arrived here to work at the Court

of Ludovico Sforza, the ruler of Milan whose nickname was Il Moro on

account of his, Jim. -- his complexion. Leonardo arrived

brandishing a musical instrument which he had fashioned to resemble a

horsey skull. -- horse's goal. It was an advertisement for his

ingenuity in different talents. Working for Ludovico Sforza gave him

the freedom to try his hand at many different things, from architect

juju engineering. -- from architecture to engineering.

This library houses his biggest collection of mechanical drawings in

the world. In bold beneath the streets of Milan the Codex

Atlanticus is made up of 1000 sheets of his netbook. They cover a range

of staggering subjects, from military weapons to canal system.

There is even a draft of the letter Leonardo rate to Ludovico Sforza to

get his job. -- wrote. I wonder if you could tell

us what he is saying. For example, he feels he is good at building

bridges. I can build bridges, light and strong. Does he talk about being

an artist as well? Music, entertainment, many other aspects of

his capacity. In this next drawing this is an example of the kind of

engineering project he took on. can see here how he is organising

and building the gate for different canals.

As well as all his engineering work, in his spare time his serious

interest in anatomy had been growing. A few of these anatomical

drawings are also tucked away here in the collection. I wonder whether

there is much correspondence between the mechanical drawings and the

anatomical studies? Sometimes he tried to combine both. Because in

his point of view the human body is Leonardo to make his paintings of

the human body more effective. To start with his knowledge wasn't

based on first-hand observation, but on speculative classical literature

stretching back to Aristotle. This meant his drawings of the human body

were not always anatomically correct. But his enquiring mind asks

questions about the human form that had never been ask before. --

asked. The breakthrough came at the end of the decade when he inside the

head of a page on a new netbook, April, 1489, in the pages that

follow he executed this exquisite series of drawings of the human

skull. They were meticulous, lucid, very precise and clearly made from

human material gave him an enhanced understanding of anatomical

structures lending his drawings scientific credibility. But of

course it wasn't just about observation. He was also an

excellent draughtsman. What I'm going to do is take the skull off

for you, and ask you to make a series of studies of it upside down.

I want to find out how he articulated his understanding of the

body through drawing. I am back in London to meet artist Sarah Simblet.

What do you feel you have learned from his anatomical drawings?

point of reference, I have learnt technically, the use of pen and

ink, I have learned very much about the way in which he uses drawing to

see and understand structure and form, the way he uses drawing as an

investigative tool as well as a means of thinking and expressing

himself. What was his technique?

He has worked with a steel tipped pen, when you press it down onto the

paper two pieces of metal will splay apart and bite undulating the

pressure you can change the thickness and its oppression of your

line -- splay apart and by undulating the pressure.

He is thinking as an engineer, he is trying to understand the mechanism

of the body, life, whereas an awful lot of artists look at the surface

and want to be able to render muscular form and the power of the

living body, Leonardo wants to get inside and understand how it works

and you don't find other artists working in that way, a true

Despite the breakthrough with the skills he put his anatomical

investigations aside for a decade and went on to other things. For

material Leonardo this meant anything from designing a game of

Milan's Cathedral to painting one of his master curses -- masterpieces,

the Last Supper. His latent enthusiasm for anatomy resurfaced

around 1504 and in later life the studies took up more of his time

than any other single activity. The Royal collection's exhibition,

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Man, at the Edinburgh in the, has

brought together a huge range of his anatomical drawings. -- Edinburgh

International Festival. There is one that has never been shown in the UK

in its entirety before. It consists of 18 sheets on which Leonardo

crammed more than 240 individual drawings are covering almost every

bone in the body, and many major muscle groups.

Here we see the superficial anatomy of the shoulders, and the neck. You

see the same model, it has been sensitively drawn, rotating in

space, so we get a full articulation of something which is 3-D. The

series continues right down to the bottom of the sheet way you can see

the skin has disappeared, and underneath here are the muscles in

the tendons laid bare so that Leonardo is not just observing how

things appear in one static sense before his eyes, he is always

thinking about how things exist in reality, in our world. He is 20

articulate the functional side of anatomy. There she is trying to

pictures to capture beautifully, a sense of physical movement. Every

pose has been cleverly chosen to highlight each muscle group.

Dancers, more than any group of people have a keen awareness of

their bodies and how they physically function. I have come to a rehearsal

of the Scottish Ballet to talk to the artistic director, Christopher

Hampson, about Leonardo's skilful poses in his manuscript. I find it

interesting he is using movement to further identify muscle groups and

ligaments or perhaps how far the joint will move. It is poetic he has

used something anatomical that could be quite dry. Christopher has found

a unique way of bringing his poses to life. Do you think we should

introduce the seminaked man? This is our principal dancer, Eric. He will

help us out in recreating these images. This is the first example,

what have you chosen? I have chosen the shoulder and the arm. It is a

ballet pose any way. His arm is outstretched and Eric has

automatically put his head looking down at the arm and you can tell

that is indicated. It is not snapped this way, it has a slight bend,

which you can see he has got there so all of the muscles are

well-defined. That is why I find these drawings are so interesting,

he has used rotation and shaping to make sure the correct the muscles

stand out. Why have you picked this? It has a sense of movement to

it. The arm is in what we call a fifth position. Eric, if you can

take the fifth position. This gives us the shape. By making the four arm

rotate in towards the head makes the bicep come out and ignite. It shows

the arm much more clearly. This is your third example, what is

happening? He is showing how the calf muscle gets fired up, ignites,

I presume. Then he shows this, the foot on a three quarters point. You

can see immediately the calf muscle gets fired up. It is a marked

difference. Yes.This muscle becomes hard when pulling up the heel as

well as releasing it. We have just seen that. You have seen it

perfectly. Leonardo's sketches are remarkably succinct and accurate. He

was able to convey all of this, simply through drawing. And now, the

Royal collection's Leonardo exhibition in Edinburgh is doing

something innovative live. This is the first exhibition that compares

his anatomical discoveries simply using a scalpel and a pen with

sophisticated imaging techniques like CT and MRI scans, and also 3-D

films. It is staggering to reflect that even though today's anatomists

are using contemporary technology, many of their conclusions are

similar to Leonardo he made in his drawings 500 years ago. I want to

put this idea to the test, so I am going to do a little experiment. I

must admit, I am feeling a little apprehensive. This is an MRI

scanner. Medical technology doesn't get much louder or more

sophisticated. Are you doing OK in there? Fine. It is going to scan my

hand so I can compared the results with one of Leonardo's anatomical

sketches that he made in the winter of 1510. OK, it is all done.I have

survived. You have indeed.I got through that, I still have some pins

and needles in my arm and left hand. It is bizarre in there it is

like being in a futuristic film set nightclub. I kind of went into

another place, another zone. I am glad it is done, I am revising --

relieved. Time to get out of my gown. Talk me through what we are

seeing here. Even though we have all of this 21st-century technology,

these are still complicated images. Can you talk me through what we're

looking at? The straight lines are the muscles coming up. The white

areas of the blood vessels. We have the bones over here which are dark

on this picture. I brought along a reproduction of one of the most

famous sheets by Leonardo. This was done in the winter of 1510, and it

is startling looking at it compared to these images. Absolutely

accurate. All of these tendons radiating up from the rest. It is

amazing how accurate he was able to draw it. We can see the different

bones, he has done it absolutely correct. This is a knot of

complexity isn't it? Yes, these are the bones in the wrist which allow

us to do everything. It looks like an area of parched earth. What is

brilliant about these drawings is he manages to take something that is

clearly so complicated and make it lucid and clear in a sheet done 500

years ago. To achieve this level of accuracy, Leonardo not only had to

be an excellent draughtsman, but also he had to be handy with a

scalpel and have direct access to human bodies. In the course of his

anatomical investigations, he only dissected about 30 corpses. And

around 20 of these were carried out while he was compiling his

manuscript and was probably collaborating with a doctor at the

University macro. I have come to the anatomy department at Glasgow

University to see the human dissection. What I hope is that this

will help me understand Leonardo's achievement in these drawings by

witnessing the complexity of what he himself would have observed. We are

going to try and imitate one of the famous drawings Leonardo did, and

give you an idea how complex the tissue is and how good a job he

actually did. The difference between the modern era and his time is he

obtained bodies either illegally through the church and through the

pauper's house. But today, everyone we use here is donated willingly and

knowingly. In their actual life, they have signed the forms

themselves. We will move to the foot, and we will see the tendons

becoming more prominent. These are the things standing out in his

drawings. They are much more pronounced in his drawings and in

reality. If you did not know what you are looking for, you might miss

it? It is testament to the scale of Leonardo he can take something and

make it so clear. You can see underneath, each tendon which is the

thick white band? One of each of these for each toe. A collection of

strings or ropes connected to the muscle at one end and to the bone at

the other. Remarkable that not only he captured them in terms of his

drawings, but understood the mechanical purpose of them. I

imagine Leonardo going through this dissection and not just looking at

it as a static example, but pulling on the tendons and moving things

around. It is so clear to me now he did something remarkable in the

drawings to articulate that in a clever, simple, plain fashion.

Leonardo's combined skills as a dissected and draughtsman, meant he

would glean insight that would not be observed to gain for hundreds of

years. The full scope of his scientific accomplishments can be

seen in the field of cardiac anatomy, which he carried out

towards the end of his career. Intrigued by the way the aortic

valve opens and closes to ensure blood flows in one direction,

Leonardo set about constructing a model, filling an ox's heart with

wax. When the wax had hardened, he recreated the structure in glass and

pumped a mixture of grass seeds, suspended in water, through it. It

allowed him to observe the vortex of the seed swelling around at the base

of the aorta. And the result, Leonardo correctly posited, it

helped to close the aortic valve. And that would not be observed a

game for hundreds of years, until the 20th century. -- a game. One

contemporary practitioner who studied this side of Leonardo's work

is the heart surgeon, Francis Wells. The first time I focused on the

drawings was when I'd just qualified as a doctor. Once I had seen them, I

thought they were far better than anything we had in the current day,

modern textbook of anatomy. They were beautiful, accurate and

absorbing. You can look with a magnifying glass at some of the

heart for example and the fineness of the shading gives you a depth to

these drawings, which is technical genius. What did he find out about

the heart? The heart was thought of as a two chamber structure up until

and after his time - of course he never published this. But the

atria, the filling changes were part as the system, the heart. Leonardo

firmly states the heart is for Chambers. I brought along a

reconstruction of a drawing he made where he observes the vortices.

is a fine example of synopsis. He has the description of the vortices,

and little diagrams showing how this argument has to be the right one for

the mechanism of closure for the valve, and not such simple reflex of

the blood and how it would fail. This wasn't understood or known

about until the last century. But it was reported in 1968 by two

engineers in Oxford. The references were back to Leonardo da Vinci, 500

years old. The tragedy of his anatomical investigations is that he

never got round to publishing them. It was almost as if he was

constantly getting sidetracked with all of his difference projects. The

abrupt death of his collaborator from the plague in 1511, coupled

with public -- political turmoil in Milan cut short his systematic

efforts to finish his treaties. When he died in 1519, the hundreds of

sheets and notes he compiled over three decades remained hidden among

his private papers. If Leonardo had published his treaties on anatomy, E