A new exhibition is going on display later this year to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci.
In November, 80 of the Renaissance master’s greatest drawings will be unveiled at The Queen’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse, in Edinburgh, forming the largest exhibition of the artist’s work which has ever been shown in Scotland.
Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing explores the full range of his interests – painting, sculpture, architecture, anatomy, engineering, cartography, geology and botany – and provides a comprehensive survey of his life and insight into the workings of his mind.
The drawings in the Royal Collection have been together as a group since the artist’s death in 1519, and entered the collection during the reign of Charles II, around 1670.
Given the breadth of his interests, he was the archetypal ‘Renaissance man’, and his work is characterised by a multitude of artistic and scientific pursuits that cross-fertilised each other over many years.
The exhibition, which runs from November 22 until March 15 in 2020, features some of the finest examples of the artist’s anatomical drawings, including ‘The skull sectioned’ (1489), ‘The fetus in the womb’ (circa 1511) and ‘The cardiovascular system and principal organs of a woman’ (c 1509–10).
The exhibition is the culmination of a year-long nationwide event, which has given the widest-ever UK audience the opportunity to see the work of this unparalleled artist.
In February, 144 of Da Vinci’s drawings from the Royal Collection went on display in 12 simultaneous exhibitions at museums and galleries across the UK, attracting more than a million visitors.
Martin Clayton, head of prints and drawings at the Royal Collection Trust, said: ‘The drawings of Leonardo da Vinci are both incredibly beautiful and the main source of our knowledge of the artist.
“As our year-long celebration of Leonardo’s life draws to a close with the largest exhibition of his work ever shown in Scotland, we hope that as many people as possible will take this unique opportunity to see these extraordinary works, and engage with one of the greatest minds in history.”