Leonardo Da Vinci: The Marvelous Works Of Nature And Man By Martin Kemp

Leonardo da Vinci’s artwork is looked at in a unique way in the work, Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvelous Works of Nature and Man, by Martin Kemp. The author considers Leonardo and the process he takes of dissecting an older gentleman and the artwork of the female anatomy. The author then takes that information and connects it to another work the artist created. The artwork of the Mona Lisa that is known worldwide Kemp describes piece by piece the connection between the two parts. Upon completing the reading the reader is persuaded by the author that these pieces of artwork can indeed by connected.
Kemp first remarks that Leonardo’s work anatomically started with the dissection on an older man. The instance is the only documented proof of Leonardo’s dissections. The man was said to be a hundred years old with no known problems other than being of old age. Leonardo took this opportunity to look within the workings of the human body. Per Kemp autopsies were common during that time to the reader’s surprise (Kemp 251). The sole reason of the autopsy was to see how the old man had passed.
The old
He states that those who are older lose their blood supply and functioning of their vessels as mentioned above. When looking at the Mona Lisa if one looks closely you can see the trachea of the woman. The detail that is given to the woman is tremendous as stated from Vasari’s, Lives of the Artists in which described her throat to show her “pulse beating” (Vasari, C. Bondanella and P. Bondanella 294). In addition to the trachea Vasari also mentions that the nostrils are life like with its “pink “complexion (Vasari, C. Bondanella and P. Bondanella 294). Leonardo states that once a person is old the skin changes color to a bark color and unpleasing per the autopsy (Kemp 251). When looking at the Mona Lisa one can see that her skin is realistic and life like. Her skin does not show any signs of death or failure of the