Study sheet with cats, dragon and other animals 1513

This study sheet of cats, a dragon, and other animals was made by Leonardo da Vinci. It shows many different views of cats, in different poses. Da Vinci was working in Florence and Milan in a period when powerful families like the Medici were patrons of the arts and learning. The Renaissance was not just a time of great art, it was also a moment that produced new kinds of institutions like the academy, which helped to formalize art training. You see Leonardo here engaging in the basic, but crucial activity of studying nature closely. He uses the pen and ink to capture the different movements and poses of the animals, no doubt to inform his other works. The detailed observation apparent in this study also reflects a broader cultural shift of the Renaissance. Scholars and artists alike were newly attentive to empirical observation. Close study of the natural world, they believed, would allow them to better understand classical texts and enrich the present. This kind of approach to art making changed art education permanently. We can find out more by consulting Leonardo's notebooks.