The Queen’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse

Long recognised as one of the great artists of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci was also a pioneer in the understanding of human anatomy. Had his ground-breaking work been published, it would have transformed European knowledge of the subject.

This exhibition displays thirty sheets of Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical studies, which date from the winter of 1510-11 when he carried out some 20 autopsies at the University of Pavia in collaboration with the professor of anatomy, Marcantonio della Torre, and uses the latest medical technology including CT and MRI scans, computer simulations and 3D film of the body to explore the modern relevance of his anatomical research. This juxtaposition shows how far-sighted Leonardo’s work was, and how close he came to 21st-century medical thinking.