A drawing of a thrown-up mass of stratified rocks slanting diagonally from right to left. Behind are vertical peaks, and in the foreground horizontal stratifications and a small waterfall. The sheet is irregularly cut. Melzi's number 182.

Leonardo’s interest in rock formations was evident as early as the 1480s, in the Virgin of the Rocks (London, National Gallery). Those rocks were ancient but stable, whereas in drawings from the last decade of his life they are subject to massive forces that wrench them from the earth. In this drawing, slabs of weathered rocks are thrust upwards and piled against each other, denuded of soil and vegetation, while a torrent cascades over the strata at lower left. A similar formation in reverse is seen in the left background of the Madonna and Child with St Anne and a lamb (Paris, Louvre) and while this drawing is probably not a direct study for that painting, the connection emphasises Leonardo’s understanding of the earth as a place of infinite flux.

Text adapted from Leonardo da Vinci: A life in drawing, London, 2018