Towards the end of his life Leonardo became fascinated with destruction, and wrote many passages describing a tempest overwhelming the earth. he also executed eleven drawings of a mighty deluge, which are amongst the most enigmatic and visionary works of the entire Renaissance. Here, mountains to left and right have fragmented and are collapsing into the flooded landscape, sending torrents of water towards the viewer. Coils of wind and rain issue from the stormclouds above; only a tree in the right foreground remains standing, though its branches are being blasted by the wind, and it will soon succumb to the deluge.