![Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci attributed to Francesco Melzi](https://cmsadmin.rct.uk/sites/default/files/lead_image_half_height/RC1894_Leonardo%201600%20x%20625_Yellow.jpg)
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
Leonardo’s finest botanical drawings were studies for his destroyed painting of Leda and the Swan, which had a verdant setting echoing the fertility inherent in the myth.
The focus of this drawing is a clump of star-of-Bethlehem, flanked by wood anemone. Although the swirling leaves of the star-of-Bethlehem are elegantly stylised, the blades of grass growing untidily among the anemones suggest that Leonardo observed these plants in the wild. Below is a study of sun spurge with details of its seed heads.