Inside Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings

The collection of Leonardo da Vinci historical models at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan is one of the largest and most important in the world. Created in 1952–53 to celebrate the fifth centenary of the birth of Leonardo and the opening of the Museum, the collection is made up of more than 140 models, interpreting the studies of Leonardo da Vinci and helping Museum visitors to understand and visualise his ideas.

In Leonardo the drawing is not only an instrument for study and analysis of reality, but also a marvellously efficient form of communication. We can properly consider the drawing to be his greatest invention. Leonardo’s technical drawings rarely represent projects for original machines to be built but are often related to the observations of existing technologies and proposal of improvements.