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Recto: The heart, bronchi and bronchial vessels. Verso: A sketch of the heart and great vessels

Leonardo da Vincic.1511-13

Royal Collection Trust, UK

Royal Collection Trust, UK
London, United Kingdom

Recto: a drawing of a bovine heart, the great vessels and the bronchial tree; details of the trachea and the effects of respiration on it; numerous notes on the action of the heart. Verso: a sketch of a human heart and the main vessels. This is a view of the heart and the bronchi and bronchial vessels of the lungs. In the extensive notes Leonardo describes the ‘most minute’ branching of the bronchi, accompanied by veins and arteries ‘in continuous contact right to the ends.’ He refutes the traditional belief that air passes from the lungs directly into the heart, though he had no knowledge of gaseous exchange between the respirated air and the blood. Leonardo’s last known anatomical campaign, an analysis of the heart, was perhaps the most brilliant of his many scientific investigations. After 1511 he had little or no access to human material, and his dissections were therefore of an ox’s heart, focussing on the arrangement of the vessels and the action of the valves. Text adapted from Leonardo da Vinci: A life in drawing, London, 2018

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  • Title: Recto: The heart, bronchi and bronchial vessels. Verso: A sketch of the heart and great vessels
  • Creator: Leonardo da Vinci
  • Date Created: c.1511-13
  • Physical Dimensions: 28.8 x 20.3 cm
  • Provenance: Bequeathed to Francesco Melzi; from whose heirs purchased by Pompeo Leoni, c.1582-90; Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel, by 1630; probably acquired by Charles II; Royal Collection by 1690
  • Type: Drawing
  • Rights: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019
  • External Link: Royal Collection Trust website
  • Medium: Recto: Pen and ink on blue paper. Verso: Black chalk on blue paper
Royal Collection Trust, UK

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