# Anatomical studies of the shoulder [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [LEONARDO da Vinci]() - Date: 1451-1500 - Technique: Black chalk, pen and ink on paper, 289 x 199 mm ## Commentary "Leonardo then applied himself, even more assiduously, to the study of human anatomy, ... \[and\] he did meticulous drawings in red chalk and pen of bodies he had dissected himself. He showed all the bone structure, adding in order all the sinews and covering them with the muscles: the first attached to the skeleton, the second that hold it firm and the third that move it. In the various sections he wrote his observations in puzzling characters \(written in reverse with the left hand\)..." \(Vasari\). At the top right is a diagram of the right shoulder in which Leonardo has reduced the muscles to a cord representing the direction of force of each muscle. He thus made it clear how the muscle system works in a way that cannot be seen in nature. ## Related artworks - [Adoration of the Magi]() - [Allegory with wolf and eagle]() - [Anatomical studies \(larynx and leg\)]() - [Anatomical studies of a male shoulder]() - [Anatomical studies]() - [Annunciation \(detail\)]() - [Annunciation \(detail\)]() - [Annunciation \(detail\)]() - [Annunciation \(detail\)]() - [Annunciation \(detail\)]() - [Annunciation \(detail\)]() - [Annunciation]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()