Studies of nature
by LEONARDO da Vinci

Pure depictions of landscape, in other words of depicting directly observed nature, were a complete novelty during Leonardo's time. While imitating nature was the central task of artists at the time, none of them had until then been so rigorous as to go out into the open and draw an actual landscape. Instead, it was customary to create a landscape in the workshop with the aid of sketches or elements copied from models. The landscape was seen as an accessory designed to support the central subject in compositions of the time, the human figure. Thus Leonardo's drawings depicting real Italian landscapes are of great importance.

During classical times, plants were studied mainly because of their healing powers, but during the Christian Middle Ages a symbolic dimension was added to it. (For example, the lily appears as a symbol of the purity of Mary in paintings of the Annunciation.) In his early paintings Leonardo also used symbolic plants to extend the visual syntax. In the 1490s his awakened interest in anatomy and proportion, visible in his studies of horses, altered fundamentally his study of botany. In order to understand the process of genesis and growth, Leonardo moved his attention from the appearance of the shape and began to investigate the influences on plants of light, earth and water. He grew to realize the importance of water for the nutrition of plants and was able to explain the various shapes of roots in terms of the varying capacity of soils to store water.

Preview Picture Data File Info Comment
Landscape drawing for Santa Maria della Neve on 5th August 1473
1473
Pen and ink, 190 x 285 mm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

941*650
True Color
139 Kb



Cavern with ducks
1482-85
Pen and ink on paper, 220 x 158 mm
Royal Library, Windsor

705*974
True Color
144 Kb



Storm over a landscape
c. 1500
Red chalk on paper, 200 x 150 mm
Royal Library, Windsor

750*1028
True Color
132 Kb



Landscape near Pisa
1502-03
Red chalk on paper, 211 x 150 mm
Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid

884*622
True Color
42 Kb



Deluge over a city
1517-18
Black chalk on paper, 163 x 210 mm
Royal Library, Windsor

807*601
True Color
95 Kb



Natural disaster
1517-18
Black chalk, pen and ink on paper, 162 x 203 mm
Royal Library, Windsor

851*673
True Color
145 Kb



Lily (detail)
1480-85
Pe and ink, black chalk on paper, 314 x 177 mm
Royal Library, Windsor

620*954
True Color
71 Kb



Fruit, vegetables and other studies
1487-89
Pen and ink on paper, 235 x 176 mm
Institut de France, Paris

750*1050
True Color
100 Kb



Star of Bethlehem and other plants
1505-07
Pen and ink over red chalk on paper, 198 x 160 mm
Royal Library, Windsor

801*957
True Color
119 Kb



Birch copse
c. 1500
Red chalk on paper, 193 x 153 mm
Royal Library, Windsor

726*919
True Color
57 Kb



Study of horses
c. 1490
Silverpoint on prepared paper, 250 x 187 mm
Royal Library, Windsor

801*1074
True Color
128 Kb



Study of horses
1504-06
Red chalk on paper
Royal Library, Windsor

750*863
True Color
87 Kb



Study sheet with horses
1513-15
Pen, ink, black chalk on paper, 298 x 212 mm
Royal Library, Windsor

727*1026
True Color
125 Kb



Codex on the flight of birds
-
Pen and ink on paper, 210 x 150 mm
Biblioteca Reale, Turin

801*1127
True Color
140 Kb



Study sheet with cats, dragon and other animals
1513-15
Pen, ink, black chalk on paper, 271 x 204 mm
Royal Library, Windsor

752*959
True Color
113 Kb



Studies of a Bear Walking
1483-85
Metalpoint on pink-light brown prepared paper, 103 x 134 mm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

600*446
True Color
65 Kb



Studies of crabs
-
Drawing
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne

551*850
True Color
66 Kb



Flower study
-
Metalpoint, pen and ink on slightly brownish paper, 183 x 201 mm
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

850*758
True Color
91 Kb




Summary of works by Leonardo
Paintings
early work | in the 1480s | in the 1490s | late work | copies
Studies to paintings
Battle of Anghiari | studies (1) | studies (2) | heads | various
Other studies
anatomy | nature | engineering | maps | architecture | sculpture