Many say a picture is worth a thousand words. In anatomy, this statement is certainly true. With his anatomical drawings, Leonardo had revolutionized anatomical studies and modern science in general. Today, one can see tons of diagrams printed in medical textbooks, but before Leonardo, generally speaking there were none. Aristotle wrote about tendons and ligaments, and Galen performed dissections of wild beasts in front of large crowds. However, there are not any records of pictorial representation. Leonardo, as we are about to discuss, changed this, when he started to be interested in what lay beneath the skin that gave the human body its shape and even life.

Obviously, by comparing how a heart truly looks like( from our pictures) to how Leonardo depicted a heart, we can tell that Leonardo did not draw the heart exactly as he saw it. It was very probable that the heart Leonardo observed was covered with other remnants of the body, and was torn apart sufficiently in the process of getting to the heart itself. Truly, from what we have seen, the heart doesn’t even look like what Leonardo depicted, its surface is rough and complicated, and sinewy things extend in the interior and periphery parts. The veins that Leonardo drew seemed outside of the heart’s surface, but in reality, they are embedded in the heart’s tissue. The tubes that Leonardo depicted as perfectly round, are not, but instead collapse soon as they are cut.

I first did two “realist” drawings of the heart that lay below. Soon, I figured out that the drawings I had made(image #1 and #2) just seemed like two clumps. I decided to try to draw a diagram that might be more informative about the form and function of the heart. Even though the two diagram drawings(#3 and 4) had much less toning and features, they actually provided a better view in order to offer information. Leonardo, of course, provided much more detail in his pictures than images #3 and 4, but he still simplified his subject.

By simplifying an object, just a little, the painter has to use his/her imagination to capture the shape of an object since he is not drawing exactly what he sees in shades and light. Using this imagination helped Leonardo get the “feel” of the heart. Today, it is said that kinesthetic learners (usually this kind are gifted in painting/ drawing) soak information in and get the “feel,” by touch. For example, actually writing down notes in class is said to help remember what the professor said. Similarly, artists usually gain loads of “data” about their subjects figure by applying pen to paper. I felt this when I drew the diagram drawings. Every dark line I drew, I knew there was an outer limit. When I shaded, I knew there was a contour. This is why Leonardo did so many anatomical diagrams from human muscles to creases on a face showing a certain emotion in order to help his paintings. By drawing the heart not exactly but imagining what the shape is, and putting pen to paper, Leonardo received information about its form and ultimately its function.