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LEONARDO da Vinci: Automobile

🖼 Automobile, 1478-80
Metalpoint, pen and brush on paper
27 × 20 cm
Milan, Italy

Mechanical precision dominates this sketch of a wheeled vehicle, rendered in Leonardo's characteristic pen strokes with anatomical attention to motion and force distribution. The design reveals Renaissance ingenuity—a visionary prototype anticipating mechanical transportation centuries before industrial manufacture became possible.

The story of art
The story of art
E. H. Gombrich
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