Leonardo da Vinci was perfectly familiar with the anatomy of the human body through his surgical research on corpses. He was particularly familiar with the laws harmonizing flesh, tendons, muscles, bones and organs, and this in their visible mobility as well as in their postural immobility which I call “the breath of emotional expression”. These laws are very precise and complex. Leonardo da Vinci invented the study of the physiology of visible as well as invisible movement. He achieved this with the human body as much as he did with machines.


The face, the neck, hands and feet are the hardest to reproduce because of the large number of articulated parts. Moreover and mainly, representing anatomic particularities specific to each individual is very difficult. Why ? Everyone has suffered from traumas such as birth, then growing up and finally life itself. These traumas make the body deforming itself so that the different systems may work and reduce suffering as well. This leaves a more or less visible imprint. This is what I call the constitutional spiral, unique to everyone.


For example, for a neck to be expressive and in harmony with the face, this requires that each one of anatomical particularities be represented balancing the trauma(s) to the head or shoulders. If even only one of these particularities does not fit harmoniously with the flaw in the shoulder, jaw or cranium, it would look like a stiff neck or even a grimace. At best, it will be rigid. Here is the difficulty in breathing life into a purely figurative work of art. The 4th dimension which emerges from the invisible can vibrate through the matter solely in obedience to harmonization laws.

Suite : The Mona Lisa - Leonardo da Vinci, Creative Process.


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