Skip to Main Content

Leonardo da Vinci Drawings of Horses from the Royal Library at Windsor Castle

February 24 – June 9, 1985
West Building, Ground Floor, Graphics Galleries GS-6, GS-7, GS-8, GS-9 (3,000 sq. ft.)

Installation view of Leonardo da Vinci Drawings of Horses from the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Gallery Archives

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

Overview: 50 studies by Leonardo da Vinci of horses, donkeys, oxen, cats, dragons, and other creatures were shown, dating from 1478 to around 1517. The works were selected by Jane Roberts, curator, prints and drawings, Royal Library, from Queen Elizabeth II's collection of more than 600 Leonardo drawings.

Organization: H. Diane Russell was the coordinator for the National Gallery. Gaillard Ravenel and Mark Leithauser designed the exhibition, and Gordon Anson designed the lighting for the National Gallery.

Sponsor: The exhibition was supported by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities and, in Washington, by Paul Mellon.

Attendance: 154,033

Catalog: Leonardo da Vinci: Drawings of Horses and Other Animals from the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, by Carlo Pedretti. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984.

Brochure: Leonardo da Vinci, Drawings of Horses from the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, by Gretchen Hirschauer. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1985.

Other Venues: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, June 2–October 13, 1985
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, November 9, 1985–February 23, 1986

Leonardo da Vinci
Italian, 1452 - 1519