He was pretty aware - and in fact names Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo as the ‘great anatomists’ in the text accompanying the Tiger-Chicken-Man book. The large collection of Leonardo’s drawings, including lots of anatomical sheets, at Windsor were rediscovered in the late 1700s - I’ve read that John Hunter, the great surgeon anatomist and Stubbs’s patron was the first to realise their scientific importance, but have not come across any direct evidence of this. It’s interesting to compare the two - both great anatomical artists, but where Leonardo sees everything through the lens of poetry, with Stubbs you never lose the feeling of n artist from Birmingham who was the son of a leatherworker. Lots more to say on this… perhaps a separate post. Thank you for the question.
He was pretty aware - and in fact names Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo as the ‘great anatomists’ in the text accompanying the Tiger-Chicken-Man book. The large collection of Leonardo’s drawings, including lots of anatomical sheets, at Windsor were rediscovered in the late 1700s - I’ve read that John Hunter, the great surgeon anatomist and Stubbs’s patron was the first to realise their scientific importance, but have not come across any direct evidence of this. It’s interesting to compare the two - both great anatomical artists, but where Leonardo sees everything through the lens of poetry, with Stubbs you never lose the feeling of n artist from Birmingham who was the son of a leatherworker. Lots more to say on this… perhaps a separate post. Thank you for the question.
I know that he has been compared to Leonardo da Vinci, whose working practices he seems to have shared, but how aware was he of da Vinci’s work?