Classification Artwork

A Deluge

One of a series of late black chalk drawings of a storm destroying the world, all spiralling water, wind and falling rock.

Persona Leonardo da Vinci

Start year 1517 - 1518

Associated place Amboise, France

Creator credit Leonardo da Vinci

late work water storm Windsor drawing

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Gallery work

Story and context

One of a series of late black chalk drawings of a storm destroying the world, all spiralling water, wind and falling rock.

In his last years Leonardo made a group of drawings of a cataclysm. Water curls into spirals, rocks fall into the sea, and the air is full of rain and whirling force. There are no recognisable people; the subject is nature's power.

He also wrote long descriptions of how to paint such a flood, with the waves, the darkness, the dead and the despair of those who remain. The drawings come from years of studying vortices in rivers and the swirl of hair, now let loose at the scale of the world.

They are kept in the Royal Collection at Windsor, which holds about six hundred of his drawings bought by King Charles II.

A Deluge

Story and context

The Workshop of Leonardo