behind the SMILE
Exhibition seeks to explains the enigmatic life of Leonardo Da Vinci
Much about Leonardo Da Vinci remains an enigma: the smile of the Mona Lisa, and why the world’s most famous painter left so many works unfinished. A new exhibit at the Louvre, however, marking the 500th anniversary of the Italian master’s death, tries to sketch out as complete a picture of the artist and thinker as possible.
Drawing from the Louvre’s permanent collection and institutions around the world, the exhibit brings together some 160 works. They include Da Vinci masterpieces, dozens of studies and scientific sketches, and pieces by other artists in Da Vinci’s orbit. Visitors can also experience a virtual reality portion of the exhibit that delves into the story behind the Mona Lisa.
“We wished, in order to pay homage to the artist, to be able to show the entirety of Leonardo Da Vinci’s career and his development and to explain, ultimately, the sense of his life,” curator Vincent Delieuvin says.
The Louvre has already presold 220,000 tickets.
More than 10 years in the making, the project began when Louis Frank, the exhibit’s other curator, translated a
Renaissance-era Da Vinci biography to round out existing knowledge about the painter’s life. That biographical emphasis is evident in the exhibit’s design, which traces the artist’s trajectory from his apprenticeship with Florentine sculptor Andrea del Verocchio to his death in France in 1519.
With a whole room devoted to his scientific pursuits, it seeks to capture the quest for knowledge and perfection of a man Delieuvin called “a universal genius”.
“Leonardo Da Vinci, he is one of those rare men, those personalities who fascinate us, because he was universal,” Delieuvin says. “He had an interest in all
aspects of nature, we all see ourselves in his personality.
Several of Da Vinci’s completed paintings will be on display, including La Belle Ferronniere and The Virgin and Child
with Saint Anne. The Mona Lisa will remain in its case, upstairs. Visitors will be able to see Portrait of a Musician on loan from the Vatican and Benois Madonna from St Petersburg, among other works the Louvre borrowed for the occasion.
Some pieces proved more difficult to obtain. The Vitruvian Man, Da Vinci’s famous drawing of the ideally proportioned male figure, arrived in France from Venice’s Accademia Gallery only days before the exhibit’s opening.
Italian heritage group Our Italy tried to block the loan, saying the drawing was too fragile to be moved. An Italian court originally suspended the loan before ruling last week that it could travel to France for eight weeks. In exchange, the Louvre will lend several works by Raphael to Rome next year.
“A Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit is very difficult to do, since Da Vinci has become a symbol,” Delieuvin says, calling it “natural” that some museums are reluctant to lend pieces from their collections.