Studies of the upper limb

Leonardo undertook studying the articulation of the upper limbs in order to improve the expressiveness and naturalness of the personages in his paintings. It was the artist’s intention that bodies ought to express their vitality through movements that ought to be “very obvious”. Movement is given by the mobility of the skeleton and by muscular contractions.

Inside the window, the models in ceroplastics reproduce the area of the body to which Leonardo attributed great importance: the upper limb and the shoulder. This latter is the most mobile joint of the body, and the primary in allowing the multiple movements of the arm. The muscles of the shoulder and chest are shown severed and raised in order to display the different stratifications.