Hidden Butterfly and Its Complete Metamorphosis in the “Portrait of a Lady” by Leonardo Da Vinci

摘要

One of Leonardo da Vinci’s areas of interest was the microcosm of insects. His sketches show that he studied in detail and observed their structure and peculiarities. The object of the research is the painting “Portrait of a Lady”. Upon closer examination of the painting, we discovered one detail that having the shape of a butterfly wing. Through the program Paint X, we moved the details to the amulet and we got an image of butterfly. Subsequent analysis of the painting showed that Leonardo described in this work a complete life cycle of butterfly consisting of four stages: the egg, the feeding stage, the transition stage, and the reproductive stage. Our research shows that Leonardo described the butterfly and its stages metamorphosis in “Portrait of a Lady”. Art and scientific knowledge are harmoniously combined in this work.