What was Leonardo’s way of working and how were activities conducted in his bottega (workshop) at the time when he was painting the Salvator Mundi?
The exhibition Leonardo’s Anatomical Drawings at the time of the Salvator Mundi sets out to answer these questions regarding the celebrated painting, now in a private Saudi collection, through the investigation and study of some anatomical drawings made by Leonardo and his workshop in the first two decades of the 16th century.
The focal point of the exhibition is therefore two drawings, exhibited in original from 24 June to 8 October 2023 and then replaced by facsimiles: one by Leonardo with contributions from other artists in his workshop Two studies of legs, one seen from the side with the pelvis and belly, the other other from the front (Milan, Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana) and one depicting Anatomical studies of the muscles in the legs of the legs, with a study of a male figure seen from behind and the head and torso of a male figure (Milan, Civico Gabinetto dei disegni, Castello Sforzesco).
On the back (verso) of the latter drawing, the inscription SALVTOR MUNDI appears. This annotation, referable to the famous painting of the same name, offers a key to entering Leonardo’s workshop and shedding light on an articulated and complex production context, and adding significant new pieces to the history of the enigmatic painting.
The presence of the anatomical drawing by Leonardo’s hand from the Veneranda Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, allows the visitor to compare autograph drawings and copies made by his pupils after about 1510 and to fix the date when the Salvator Mundi was about to be completed by Leonardo and his assistants.
In this exhibition, the master’s graphic work is investigated through innovative image capture technologies and returned to the visitor through the ISLe (InSignt Leonardo) application developed by the University of Bologna. With the aid of touch tables, the visitor can drills down into Leonardo’s small, dense sheets to discover what is invisible to the naked eye and thus complement the observation of the original sheets.
The exhibition also includes a visual machine, which shows affinities and differences between drawings focusing on the same subject, were not just training exercises or replicas of the master’s originals, but also variants inferred from the different uses to which they were destined.
An interactive didactic table allows visitors to traces the construction phases of drawing; finally, there is also a display of drawing tools of the time, such as the chalk or red stone, the quill pen, metallic stylus with lead or silver points.
The exhibition, curated by Pietro C. Marani, Roberta Barsanti, Marco Gaiani, was realized thanks to the collaboration of the Biblioteca Leonardiana with the University of Bologna and the Milan institutions that lent the two drawings on display: the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana and the Gabinetto dei Disegni del Castello Sforzesco.
