Recto: The bones and schematised muscles of the leg, c.1510 (pen & ink over traces...

Three drawings of the model of a left leg in three positions (profile left and right, and facing), showing the bones with the muscles and tendons being represented as copper wires. The entire space between them is filled with notes. This is one of many drawings of the muscles and bones that Leonardo made around 1510, based on his personal experience of human dissection. In studies such as this he reduced the muscles to cords running along their central lines of force, so that the whole system could be seen in a single diagram. Here he also showed the leg from three directions, further clarifying the presentation.