Da Vinci's Fetus in Womb

Description: 

This picture was drawn around the 1510's and depicts the first correctly drawn fetus as it lies in the womb. Da Vinci sketched this picture without having access to a pregnant female or fetus cadaver. He used information from his cow dissections to reconstruct a human fetus, which explains why the uterus and spherical versus pear-shaped. Da Vinci use of black ink with a red chalk over lay "captures the human condition with a spiritual beauty that is at once unnerving and ennobling" as said by Walter Isaacson in Leonardo da Vinci  (2017). It is currently on display in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle in England. 

 

Image from https://www.leonardodavinci.net/embryo-in-the-womb.jsp

Associated Place(s)

Artist: 

  • Leonardo da Vinci

Image Date: 

16th century