Template:POTD/2018-11-29

Picture of the day

Studies of the Fetus in the Womb is a set of two sketches by Leonardo da Vinci, made in around 1511. The studies depict the human fetus inside a dissected uterus. Da Vinci had studied human embryology with the help of anatomist Marcantonio della Torre and saw the fetus within a cadaver. This picture, the first of the two studies, shows the fetus in a breech position. Da Vinci mistakenly drew the placental cotyledons in the vascular walls of the uterus, a trait he had seen in a cow uterus but which is not found in humans. The studies were initially bequeathed to Francesco Melzi, with subsequent owners including Pompeo Leoni and Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel. Since 1690 they have been housed in the United Kingdom's Royal Collection.Sketch: Leonardo da Vinci