The last time I was in Edinburgh during the Festival was
many years ago when the Bombers were little and we took them to the zoo.
Herding four younglings through the Festival crowds was a nightmare and it has
always coloured my perception of August in Edinburgh and has never been
repeated: Until now. Many friends have since attended events and reported their
varying levels of pleasure so it was, perhaps, time to forget past experiences
and jump into the Edinburgh Festival anew. The stars seemed to align in favour
of this course of action when the Wing Commander announced early in August that
he was throwing off the desk chains and releasing himself from the daily-bread
grind for a long weekend so I quickly suggested a jaunt to The Big Smoke for
some cultcha.
Having narrowed down the search for shows and events (I
won’t go into how difficult it is to search for shows when the search
parameters are one specific day from 2.00p.m – almost 200 pages with a dozen
items on each page) and informed our host we would be imposing ourselves in the
spare bedroom we were quite excited at the prospect of being adults sans
offspring in large crowds of people and attending diverse events.
Our first stop was the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at The
Queen’s Gallery at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The Gallery has an excellent
policy whereby you can return as many times as you like within a year for the
price of one ticket. We had previously been to the From Constantinople to Cairo
exhibition on our last jaunt to the city so the wonders of Leonardo’s
anatomical drawings were ours to enjoy without further cost. If you are partial
to national stereotypes this is always a bonus for the Scots who are, according
to the legends, partial to keeping hold of the bawbees. [trans. pennies.]
The drawings in this exhibition are purely his
anatomical studies done in the early 16th century while he was in
his fifties. He had access to thirty cadavers over the space of a couple of
years and with the help of a disectionist he drew, in exact detail, every aspect
of the human body. They were never published as he was too much of a
perfectionist and therefore never completed them to his own satisfaction. Had
they been published they would have furthered the understanding of human
anatomy and medical science at that time. They were eventually added to the
Royal Collection in 1690 and lay ‘undiscovered’ until the early 20th
century when they were no longer ahead of medical knowledge but remained
stunning examples of Leonardo’s abilities.
In the Gallery the drawings were
exhibited next to modern imaging technologies of the same body parts. The audio
guide includes interviews with medical professionals who explain just how good
the drawings are, technically. One professor of Medicine explained that
Leonardo’s ability of stripping back each layer of tissue to expose the next,
deeper level is as good as the top prosectionists today. (A prosectionist is
the title given to a person who is an expert at dissection – who would have
thought that disectionists exist in a hierarchy!) The resultant drawings are
equal to MRI and CT scans today.
However, their beauty is not
limited to their technical accuracy. They are undoubtedly works of art and we
were blown away by the detail, the intricacy and brilliance of each and every drawing.
If you can’t get to the exhibition, buy the book or get the app.
Yes, it’s a tenner but it is well worth the price.
