Leonardo’s anatomical studies began as a tool to enhance his painting, but they evolved into a deep scientific inquiry driven by curiosity. Influenced by Alberti’s belief that understanding anatomy was essential to art, Leonardo immersed himself in dissection, sketching bones, muscles, and internal organs with extraordinary detail. His 1489 studies of the human skull pioneered cross-sectional drawing techniques. He explored how the senses worked, especially vision, and theorized about the “senso comune,” where all perception converged in the brain. He also conducted early nervous system experiments, including pithing a frog to locate the center of motion. By the 1490s, Leonardo extended his anatomical research to human proportion, producing thousands of measurements and sketches. This obsessive documentation was part of a larger vision: to discover the universal measure of man and unify artistic representation with scientific truth.

Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks exists in two major versions, one in the Louvre and one in London’s National Gallery. Originally commissioned in the 1480s by a Milanese confraternity, the painting was intended to celebrate the Immaculate Conception, though Leonardo ignored specific instructions and depicted a more mystical scene with Mary, Jesus, John the Baptist, and an angel.