Generously loaned from the Royal Collection by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for presentation during the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition will be free to the public during the 17 days of the Olympic Games as the result of a partnership with the Province of British Columbia. Comprised of a series of 18 sheets created during the winter of 1510, 16 of which have drawings on both sides, this celebrated group of exquisitely rendered compositions represents stunning achievements in both art and science. In addition to painting some of the greatest works of western art, including the Last Supper and the Mona Lisa, Leonardo undertook sculptural, architectural and engineering projects, and studied many areas of the sciences, including geometry, optics, geology, botany and hydraulics. During the winter of 1510, he travelled to the University of Pavia , where he collaborated with a professor of anatomy to create one of the finest anatomical investigations of the human body ever committed to paper— “Anatomical Manuscript A. To place the drawings in context, the exhibition will present computer animations of the artist’s numerous inventions and a display of important anatomical drawings by other scientists and artists dating from before the time of Leonardo until the publication of Greys Anatomy in the 19th-century.

Tags: high renaissance, painting techniques, the virgin on the rocks, and, in, of, leonardo da vinci drawings, drawings