Graphics: A Man of Infinite Possibilities

Of the 900 or so drawings by Leonardo da Vinci known to survive in the world, some 600 have resided for centuries in the royal collection of Britain's monarchs. How they came to be there is not certain. Most of them seem to have been brought to England by Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, known as "the father of English art collectors," who found them in Spain some time after 1637. The royal family acquired them some time before 1690. But apparently neither King William III nor Queen Mary was much impressed by...