Icona che richiama un banner d'attenzione

FOR GROUPS AND SCHOOL PARTIES ARRIVING BY BUS: Please be advised that, due to ongoing works in the village, bus access may be difficult.
We therefore recommend parking in Via Cerretana and continuing on foot.

Studies of the upper limb

Paola Salvi, Made by
Moreno Vezzoli

2016

Leonardo undertook studying the articulation of the upper limbs in order to improve the expressiveness and naturalness of the personages in his paintings. It was the artist’s intention that bodies ought to express their vitality through movements that ought to be “very obvious”. Movement is given by the mobility of the skeleton and by muscular contractions.

Inside the window, the models in ceroplastics reproduce the area of the body to which Leonardo attributed great importance: the upper limb and the shoulder. This latter is the most mobile joint of the body, and the primary in allowing the multiple movements of the arm. The muscles of the shoulder and chest are shown severed and raised in order to display the different stratifications.

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Collection
Material
Wax sculpture
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Source: Leonardo da Vinci, Windsor Collection, f. RL 19000 v
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Palazzina Uzielli, second floor

Last update: 24 June 2025, 10:35

Studies of the cranium

Paola Salvi, Made by
Moreno Vezzoli

2016

Leonardo studied the bone structure of the cranium, drawing it with extreme care and precision. Inside the window, the wax models reproduce exactly the marvelous drawings Leonardo made, allowing us to appreciate the morphology of the cranium, both internally and externally.

In the cranium to the right, two small, crossed metal segments identify the exact point where Leonardo positions the so-called “common sense”. This is the point at which the emotions (sensorial impressions) deriving from all the senses were believed to converge. Here resides the “soul”, and here is the seat of judgment, assisted by imagination and memory.

In the cranium to the left, cut in half and separated, we see the frontal part where the ocular orbits and nasal cavity stand out. In particular, we can observe the structure of the bone tissue in the jaw and distinguish some teeth and their roots.

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Collection
Material
Wax sculpture
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Source: Leonardo da Vinci, Windsor Collection, f. RL 19058 v
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Palazzina Uzielli, second floor

Related exhibits

Last update: 24 June 2025, 10:07

Studies of the upper limb in pronation-supination

Paola Salvi, Made by
Moreno Vezzoli

2016

Leonardo studied the upper limbs and their functional possibilities all throughout his life. In particular, he analyzed the instruments making their movement possible: bones, muscles, and joints. The two wax models inside the display case reproduce the movements of pronation and supination of the arm, which allow the palm of the hand to turn upward or downward.

In the anatomical model positioned farther up, the two bones that form the forearm, the radius and the ulna, are parallel: in fact, the arm is in supination. In the second model, farther down, the two bones cross, becoming oblique, and here the arm is in pronation.
The muscles responsible for the rotation of the hand, the biceps and the round pronator, are painted soft red. Leonardo was among the first to analyze the relationships between the bone components, going even so far as to point out the shortening of the arm in the pronation phase, a discovery only recently confirmed.

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Collection
Material
Wax sculpture
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Source: Leonardo da Vinci, Windsor Collection, f. RL 19000 v
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Palazzina Uzielli, second floor

Related exhibits

Last update: 14 October 2025, 11:25

Olive oil press

Luigi Boldetti

1967

Because he came from a land where cultivation of the vine and the olive tree was—as it still is today—of fundamental importance, Leonardo designed a particular press for mechanizing the work of pressing olives. The machine is made up of a sturdy structure supporting simple mechanical elements including a pinion, a toothed wheel, and an endless screw.

The mechanisms are activated by means of a long, curved lever that is made to rotate around the clamp, being turned by a horse. The large toothed wheel drives the screw toward the bottom, where a pressing body is fixed. As it proceeds downward, it exerts pressure on the disks of vegetable fibers containing the olives. The oil thus obtained is then collected in the container positioned underneath.

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Material
Partially turned carved wood, stone, braided cotton rope
Measures
Width: 68.5 cm; Length: 115 cm; Depth: 45.5 cm.
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Source: Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Atlanticus, f. 47 r
Inventory number
Record n. OA: 00000016
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Counts Guidi's castle, ground floor

Related exhibits

Last update: 11 November 2025, 11:28

Carriage-mounted springald

Made by
IBM Italia

1952

To regulate the trajectory of the projectiles and accelerate directing of the artillery, Leonardo invented various systems for aiming. This springald, which can be easily moved owing to its two large wheels, is equipped with a double-shaft tail that can spread out, providing multiple points for resting on the ground, thereby increasing stability.

The sighting and range for the shot can be regulated by the insertion of pegs, which fix the height of the wooden shaft on which the barrel is anchored. In his drawings, Leonardo also shows the springald’s defensive covering, called a mantlet, as well as special projectiles containing explosion chambers that can be filled with two different compositions of gunpowder.

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Collection
Material
Turned wood and iron
Measures
Width: 75 cm; Length: 70 cm; Depth: 116 cm.
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Source: Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Atlanticus, f. 32 r
Inventory number
Record n. OA: 00000012
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Counts Guidi's castle, ground floor

Related exhibits

Last update: 10 November 2025, 12:49

Situs viscerum in a female body

Annaklara Galli

2016

Leonardo approached the study of anatomy for the purpose of being able to better portray the human body. Quite soon, however, his curiosity and his spirit of observation led him to investigating the inside of what he himself referred to as the marvelous machine of the body.

It was in Florence, in the early 1500s, that the artist dissected various bodies at the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, advancing his own hypotheses, proceeding by comparison and formulating theories connecting the form and function of the various organs.
This sculpture in ceroplastics was made by creating a bas-relief model on a sheet of plexiglass, representing the internal organs of a female body. We can make out the uterus, kidneys, liver, spleen, and heart, with its blood vessels, organized in an ensemble view that is defined officially in anatomy as the situs viscerum (the site of the viscera).
The work is completed by two outer shells representing the front and back of the body, in accordance with a special drafting technique allowing transparency, often utilized by Leonardo, in which the outline of the body allows us to view the internal organization of the viscera.

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Collection
Material
Wax sculpture
Measures
Height: 67.5 cm; Width: 35 cm.
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Source: Leonardo da Vinci, Windsor Collection, f. RL 12281
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Palazzina Uzielli, second floor

Related exhibits

Last update: 24 June 2025, 09:48

Leonardo designed a curious apparatus that would have allowed a man to glide in the air, driven by the force of the wind. The device is a sphere obtained from the intersection of three concentric circumferences having the same diameter, realized using reeds and lightweight fabric. At the center, a series of movable rings of different sizes form a Cardan suspension similar to the mechanism used for holding nautical compasses level.

The project assumed the pilot would operate in a standing position at the interior of the smallest of the circumferences, free to rotate in all directions. The machine, which Leonardo called la ventola, or “the fan,” was to be positioned upon a hilltop, so that, when driven by the wind, it would be transported according to the direction of the air currents. Despite the movements of the sphere, the pilot ought to have been able to remain continuously standing, meaning in the vertical position with respect to the ground.

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Collection
Material
Wood, canvas
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Derivazione: Leonardo da Vinci, Codice di Madrid I, f. 64 r
Inventory number
Height: 64 cm.
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Counts Guidi's castle, ground floor

Related exhibits

Last update: 11 November 2025, 11:01

Anchor Escapement for Clock

Luigi Boldetti

1963

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Collection
Material
Carved wood, cotton rope, iron, brass
Measures
Width: 25 cm, Height: 35.5 cm, Depth: 23 cm
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Source: Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Atlanticus, f. 964 r
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Palazzina Uzielli, first floor

Related exhibits

Last update: 22 September 2025, 09:20

Ladder

Made by
IBM Italia

1952

Leonardo designed various instruments for use during the siege of a city, including a movable ladder for assaulting the city walls.

This stairway is fixed upon a trestle, on which an endless screw is mounted, activated by a crank. The screw powers a large wheel with toothing partway around, which changes the inclination of the ladder as it turns on its shaft. Once resting on the city walls, the ladder cannot be overturned by the defenders on account of the stopping mechanism that is provided by the wheel’s teeth, fitted into the threading of the endless screw.

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Collection
Material
Carved walnut wood, wrought iron
Measures
Width: 200 cm; Length: 26 cm; Depth: 105 cm.
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Source: Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Foster I, f. 46 v
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Counts Guidi's castle, ground floor

Related exhibits

Last update: 10 November 2025, 12:52

Wheel and pinion with helical teeth

Fausto Colombo, Giorgio Valentini, Giovanni Sacchi

1983

In this design, Leonardo uses a pair of wheels with helical teeth to transmit motion between non-parallel shafts. In his notes on the drawing, he states that helical-profile teeth last longer than ordinary ones because their contact surface is greater. The system can also be used as a speed reducer.

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Collection
Material
Swiss pine wood
Measures
Width: 75 cm, Length: 75 cm, Depth: 75 cm
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Source: Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Atlanticus, f. 1103 r
Inventory number
Object Record No.: 00000083
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Palazzina Uzielli, second floor

Related exhibits

Last update: 22 September 2025, 12:08

How clear is the information on this page?

Thank you, your feedback will help us improve the service!

What were your favorite aspects?1/2

Dove hai incontrato le maggiori difficoltà?1/2

Do you want to add more details?2/2

Enter a maximum of 200 characters

This website is protected by reCAPTCHA. Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use di applies.