Louvre - Geological Sketches

The image on the sketch does not have a known location as it was most likely a place Leonardo da Vinci imagined, but the sketch is now available for all of the public to see on display the Louvre Museum in Paris.  The research that Leonardo did to discover more about the Earths geological formations can be translated directly into his paintings that now hang in the Louvre.  With the shift in art styles from the Byzantine era to the Renaissance, there was a shift to have a lot more focus in the background of paintings which Leonardo studied extensively in sketches such as this one.  In a large amount of Leonardo's paintings there is a beautiful backdrop of rock formations and otherwise, but there is not many sketches such as these found from his notebooks.

Works Cited:

“Leonardo Da Vinci (Vinci 1452-Amboise 1519) - A Ravine.” Royal Collection Trust, www.rct.uk/collection/912395/a-ravine

Rosenberg, Gary D. The Revolution in Geology from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment.

Parent Map

da Vinci and the Renaissance 2020 Map

Coordinates

Latitude: 48.860611100000
Longitude: 2.337644000000

Timeline of Events Associated with Louvre - Geological Sketches

Date Event Manage
1483 to 1484

Geological Sketches

This sketch is suspected to be created around 1483 and it's believed that this ravine wasn't an actual place, but instead from Leonardo da Vinci's imagination.  The only way for Leonardo to have been able to create a realistic looking ravine without copying one he would have been looking at would be to study them extensively.  This has also been proven by some of his ideas about the actual age of the Earth. Although exceedingly controverisal, Leonardo believed the earth was much older than thought at the time because he studied different seashells found on mountain tops and theorized that they couldn't have been placed there.  Instead, water was one there and as time passed, the water levels decreased and fossils of bones were left in areas of higher elevation.  Leonardo also understood that this process wouldn't happen quickly, but slowly over long periods of time. Although there doesn't appear to be any shells in this image, the decrease in water level is clearly visible in this sketch.

Works Cited:

Jones, Johnathan. Leonardo Da Vinci's Earth-Shattering Insights about Geology. 23 Nov. 2011, www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2011/nov/23/leonardo-....

Leonardo da Vinci [CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

“Leonardo Da Vinci (Vinci 1452-Amboise 1519) - A Ravine.” Royal Collection Trust, www.rct.uk/collection/912395/a-ravine.

Rosenberg, Gary D. The Revolution in Geology from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment.