Leonardo da Vinci is a very well known artist, but is less known for his major contributions to science¹. He was obsessed with the world around him, depicting everything he saw in his notes and his drawings. With no formal schooling², he was the “master observer” and called himself a “disciple of experience”¹, making him an empiricist. His art was a connection between the natural world and the abstract, claiming that the artist was a transmitter of the data of experience which one acquired through observation³, declaring that art was science and vice versa. 

His earliest drawings of humans were anatomically inaccurate as they were based on representations of what other physicians had described to him, rather than what he observed himself⁴. So, he originally studied anatomy to train his art³. Da Vinci abhorred painters who did not bother to learn anatomy, claiming that they “drew their nude figures looking like wood, devoid of grace; so that you would think you were looking at a sack of walnuts rather than the human form”². 

Da Vinci was trained in anatomy by Andrea del Verrocchio³. In 1489, he obtained his first human skull and began a series of anatomical drawings showcasing the ideal human form. By 1513, he had dissected over 30 bodies⁵, the first one being in 1506 where he performed the post-mortem of a 100 year-old man who died right in front of him⁴.  At the time of this first dissection, da Vinci noted, “this old man, a few hours before his death, told me he was over a hundred years old and that he felt nothing wrong with his body other than weakness. And thus, while sitting on his bed in the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, without any movement or other sign of mishap, he passed out of this life. And I made an anatomy of him in order to see the cause of so sweet a death”⁵. Here, the true curiosity of da Vinci shines through. 

Although dissections in the Renaissance were not directly opposed by the Church⁴, they were limited to those in the medical profession, which da Vinci was not a part of. Therefore many of his dissections were done illegally, where he would pay grave robbers to bring him bodies to fulfill his need for anatomic studies⁵. 

Not only was da Vinci obsessed with what he saw, but he was consumed with needing to know how life worked, and in this way he had learned the way the muscles and the bones worked together to create movement^3,4. His approach to anatomy and art was in line with that of engineering, where the art he created depicted the living mechanics of the human body². He was the first to develop drawing techniques that conveyed information. For example, he created the use of cross-sections through “transparent layers”, multiple angles, chiaroscuro techniques, and cross-hatching³. 

Moreover, it was clear that he was an extremely skilled dissector since the post-mortem material he worked with was neither chilled nor fixed, which may be why he lacked a range of drawings of the internal organs⁴. Although, even then, da Vinci found ways around this. One way was to inject hot wax into the skull of an ox to view the cerebral ventricles¹, discovering that the humors did not reside there, as was previously thought. He also found that instead of the liver, it was the heart that was the core of the circulatory system⁴. He identified the two atria and two ventricles of the heart⁵, and fascinated by the cardiac functioning, decided to create a glass aorta. In this way he studied the fluid dynamics of water and grass seeds through the aortic valve, determining the movement of blood through the circulatory system. This was 120 years before Harvey had even grasped the same idea he is known for⁴. 

These advances da Vinci made, just through keen observation and curiosity, are astounding and skills physicians should be more eager to learn. Although being observant is looked at with esteem in medicine, it is a skill that needs to be emphasized more within medical education itself. Instead of focusing on the remembrance of facts and actively searching for answers, the mastery of examining and contemplating and accepting that answers will come through this practice is vital to the finesse of treating our fellow humans. 

References

1. White R. (2011). Leonardo da Vinci’s Observations. Memorise: Brain Articles. https://memorise.org/brain-articles/leonardo-da-vincis-observations
2. Broomhall S. and Marusic I. (2019). Leonardo da Vinci revisited: how a 15th century artist dissected the human machine. The Conversation. URL: https://theconversation.com/leonardo-da-vinci-revisited-how-a-15th-century-artist-dissected-the-human-machine-112399
3. Heydenreich L. H. (2020). Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomical Studies and Drawings. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leonardo-da-Vinci/Anatomical-studies-and-drawings
4. Jones R. (2012). Leonardo da Vinci: anatomist. The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 62(599), 319. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp12X649241 
5. Perloff J. K. (2013). Human Dissection and the Science and Art of Leonarda da Vinci. The American Journal of Cardiology, 5(111), 775-777. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjcard.2012.12.031