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Primary sourcePaintingc. 1513-1517

Studies for Animals

Leonardo da Vinci · c. 1513-1517

A photographic slide of Leonardo da Vinci's pen and ink drawings of cats and horses, now in the Windsor Royal Library.

These animal studies are Leonardo's own drawings, showing his scientific observation of nature.

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Lantern slide showing two photographed pages of Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of cats and horses in ink. Left page has many small cat studies; right page has horses and riders. Labels read Chats et chevaux, Windsor Royal Library, and Université de Louvain.
Leonardo da Vinci, Studies for Animals, c. 1513-1517. Windsor Royal Library; photographic lantern slide, KU Leuven.

About this source

What it is

This lantern slide photographs two pages of pen and ink drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, made around 1513-1517. The originals are kept at Windsor Castle, and the slide itself was produced for teaching at the Université de Louvain.

One page shows many small studies of cats, the other studies of horses and riders, demonstrating Leonardo's careful observation of animal movement.

Why it matters

Leonardo studied animals as closely as he studied people and machines. These sketches show his habit of repeated observation to understand how bodies move, a method that fed into his paintings and scientific work.

Look closer

  • Why might Leonardo draw the same animal in many different poses on one sheet?
  • What similarities can you see between the cat and horse studies?
  • This slide is a photograph of a photograph of the drawings — how might that change what details you can see?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Leonardo da Vinci on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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