As part of The Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations, 10 of the finest Leonardo drawings from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, are being shown in Sheffield (12 July to 21 September), before moving on to other institutions in the British Isles. The Royal Collection’s group of Leonardo drawings, in the collection since 1690 and probably acquired in the reign of Charles II, is unrivalled in terms of size and breadth of subject matter and the selection for this exhibition has been made to show all stages of the artist’s career and his wide range of interests which included architecture, engineering, anatomy, optics, geology and botany. The drawings consist of dramatic studies of Neptune, a tempest overwhelming a landscape, and mortars bombarding a fortress. There is also a delicate drawing of 1510 of a youth in profile, the depiction of whose hair shows technical similarities with the studies of waves and grasses. A detailed map of Tuscany, studies of a horse in three positions, the anatomy of a human shoulder and a study of light and shadow are evidence of other aspects of Leonardo’s investigations.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'Drawings by Leonardo da Vinci from the Royal Collection a Golden Jubilee celebration'