
Last works

Recto: Studies of the valves and ventricles of the heart. Verso: Studies of the coronary vessels and valves of the heart ©
On a sheet in the previous section of the exhibition, Leonardo stated ‘this winter of 1510 I believe I shall finish all this anatomy’. But it was not to be. In 1511 his collaborator Marcantonio della Torre died, and later that same year Milan fell into military turmoil.
Leonardo thus spent much of the period 1512 - 13 at the country villa of his assistant Francesco Melzi. Though he had lost his access to human material, Leonardo continued his anatomical work, dissecting the corpses of birds, dogs and oxen. A period of retreat during which he could have written up his earlier researches for publication was instead filled with a miscellany of new interests.
The topic that engaged Leonardo most fully was the heart of the ox (little different from the human heart). He described with great accuracy the chambers (the ventricles and atria) and the structure and functioning of the valves. But he was unable to reconcile what he observed with what he believed to be true.
Leonardo da Vinci (Vinci 1452-Amboise 1519)
Recto: The skeleton. Verso: The muscles of the face and arm, and the nerves and veins of the hand
Leonardo da Vinci (Vinci 1452-Amboise 1519)
Recto: The ventricles, papillary muscles and tricuspid valve. Verso: The heart and coronary vessels
Leonardo da Vinci (Vinci 1452-Amboise 1519)
The aortic valve
Leonardo da Vinci (Vinci 1452-Amboise 1519)
Recto: Studies of the nerves and muscles, the heart, and optics. Verso: Blood flow through the aortic valve
Associated with Leonardo da Vinci (Vinci 1452-Amboise 1519)