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At a talk at the Intellectual Forum on 16 May, heart surgeon Francis Wells dissected Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical studies through a contemporary lens. 

Francis Wells is what you might call a Renaissance man. A successful heart surgeon at Royal Papworth Hospital, where he has worked as a consultant for the last 38 years, he has also fostered a longstanding interest in art. He is a recipient of the Sir Hugh Casson prize for drawing, he has sponsored several artists-in-residence within his clinical practice, and he has become one of the world’s foremost experts on Leonardo da Vinci.

An artist, philosopher, and natural scientist, da Vinci is a fitting person to bring Wells’s scientific and artistic sides together. Da Vinci had a keen interest in anatomy, and he described the heart's workings with a level of accuracy extraordinary for his day. Wells has researched Leonardo's anatomical sketches in depth, culminating in his book, “The Heart of Leonardo”.

Fatima Eshani, a final year medical student and president of the ��ͷ��ԭ�� Art Club, first encountered Wells during her surgery rotation at Papworth.

"Meeting Francis Wells as a medical student shadowing an open-heart surgery was an unforgettable experience”, Fatima said. “Following the procedure, he gifted me an illustration of the heart valve I watched him replace — I knew then that there was more to this surgeon than first met the eye”.

That surgery rotation sparked a lasting mentorship and friendship between Fatima and Wells. It also led the ��ͷ��ԭ�� Art Club to collaborate with the IF on a public event with Wells on 16 May, hosted by Fatima and staffed by members of the Art Club.

For da Vinci, Wells said, “the greatest function of the human soul was to understand the wonders of the natural world”. Wells’s own wonder at the ingenuity and scientific rigour of da Vinci’s work kept the audience spellbound for the duration of his wide-ranging talk.

Notable was Wells’s astonishment at the precision of da Vinci’s 16th century scientific drawings. He repeatedly proved the accuracy of da Vinci’s observations of hearts by comparing his drawings to modern dissections - many of which Wells had performed himself.

At one point, Wells recalled a particular da Vinci sketch of a heart that did not align with what his medical experience had led him to expect. “I said, I've caught him out. He's made a mistake”, Wells recalled. To confirm the error, Wells did his own matching dissection. “And blow me down, what do I see?”

With an anatomist friend, Wells did a series of work to determine that what da Vinci had drawn were nerve fibres that were, in fact, present in the heart. Da Vinci hadn’t made a mistake after all. “At this point, the hairs were standing up on the back of my neck because it's like he's in the room with you,” Wells said of the realisation.

Images of Wells's dissections, as well as many of da Vinci’s sketches with Wells’ commentary, were displayed in an exhibit accompanying the talk on the upper level of Frankopan Hall. Many audience members arrived early or stayed on after the talk to explore the exhibit, which received almost 200 visitors over the four days it was open for viewing.

“Collaborating with the IF to display Francis’s works at ��ͷ��ԭ�� was a unique and inspiring experience for the Art Club, allowing us to showcase our creativity and love of art in an exceptional setting,” said Fatima.

Many audience members stayed long after the event to continue speaking to Francis on topics ranging from da Vinci to Michaelangelo and “Grey’s Anatomy” (the textbook, not the show). As one attendee summarised, the evening and accompanying exhibition were a “wonderful expression of love for art and science”.

“There was an unmatched buzz the whole evening”, Fatima reflected. “It was an honour to be intimately involved in the curation and execution of such a memorable and thought-provoking event".