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