Storm clouds over a flooded landscape, c.1517-18 (pen and ink and brown wash over black...

A drawing of a tempest with spouts of water, on the right, descending from the clouds, and falling on a wooded hill. Water rushes downhill, bending trees. On the left is another wooded hill, with treetops visible above the torrent. Towards the end of his life Leonardo became fascinated by cataclysmic storms and scenes of destruction. Here he has portrayed storm clouds releasing shafts of water onto a wooded hill. The power of the rain rushing down the hill bends the trees under its force, and the flooded landscape contains many trees submerged and uprooted by the swirling water.