Largest Leonardo da Vinci collection: A Life in Drawing at the Queen’s Gallery London

The Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace is joining the National Gallery and the British Library as another venue in the long list of places around London that’s commemorating the 500th death anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci. Called Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing, it’ll feature more than 200 drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, the largest exhibition of the artist’s work in over 65 years. It’s been open from 24 May and has been chosen from the Royal Collection, taking anyone who goes to visit through the full range of Leonardo’s interests in painting, sculpture, architecture, anatomy, engineering, cartography, geology and botany. Think of the exhibition as a comprehensive survey of Leonardo’s life and a unique insight into the workings of his mind. Why was Leonardo da Vinci so influential? Leonardo was revered in his day as a painter, but he completed only around 20 paintings. He was respected as a sculptor and architect, but no sculpture or buildings by him survive. He was a military and civil engineer who plotted with Machiavelli to divert the river Arno, but the scheme was never realised. As a scientist, he dissected 30 human corpses with the intention of compiling an illustrated treatise on anatomy, and planned other treatises on light, water, botany, mechanics and much else besides, but none of these was ever finished. As so much of Leonardo’s work was unrealised, many of his achievements survive only in his drawings and manuscripts. Few of Leonardo’s drawings were intended for others to see: drawing served as Leonardo’s… Read More