We follow in the footsteps of Leonardo Da Vinci in Paris, where this autumn’s greatest exhibition will take place at the Louvre.
This year, the 500th anniversar y of the death of Leonardo da Vinci (1519-2019) has played a central role in Europe’s cultural initiatives. This season, two unique exhibitions will give visitors the oppor tunity to take in the brilliance of this Renaissance genius. One will star t in October at the Louvre Museum, the home of the Mona Lisa, whilst the other will take place at the Sforza Castle in Milan.
The uniqueness of this Renaissance genius is so widely appreciated that anyone who takes an interest in any of da Vinci's fields of expertise will be able to capture audiences and create a timeless and engaging story about him.
Any investment, no matter how large, into depicting da Vinci’s life is sure to meet with success. This is exemplified everywhere from Dan Brown’s internationally successful esoteric thriller, The Da Vinci Code, and Walter Isaacson’s recent biography on the Italian genius, to the new film, starring Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio, for which an enormous sum was paid to gain the rights to Isaacson’s book. DiCaprio says that destiny is to thank for the opportunity to take on such an important role. After all, his mother was inspired to name him after the Italian intellectual when she felt him kicking while looking at one of da Vinci’s works in the Uffizi Galle y in Florence.
What’s more, even 500 years after his death, the Italian genius continues to inspire many interesting exhibitions. However, this shouldn’t come as a surprise, as da Vinci was a painter, anatomist, architect, paleontologist, artist, botanist,
scientist, writer, sculptor, philosopher, engineer, inventor, musician, poet and city planner. Also, as indicated by his latest biographies, he was ‘an illegitimate child, homosexual, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and occasionally heretical’. He left behind numerous notebooks filled with his observations, sketches, jokes, maps, formulas and more.
The British Library in London is home to one of the most recent exhibitions on Leonardo da Vinci. Visitors will be captivated as they take in the display of the artist’s notes and drawings, which show motion as ‘the cause of all life’. For the first time in the UK, the exhibition will display the British Library ’s Codex Arundel, alongside the Codex Forster from the Victoria and Albert Museum, and a selection of sheets from the Codex Leicester. The Codex Leicester will be shown in the UK for the first time since it was purchased by Bill Gates for a large sum in an auction.
WHAT YOU WILL SEE IN THE LOUVRE
Perhaps the most impactful exhibition this autumn will be in the Louvre, which is not far from Amboise, the French town where da Vinci died. The Louvre holds the largest selection of the Florentine genius’s work and is the home to the iconic Mona Lisa.
The exhibition will take place in Hall Napoléon, which is situated just beneath the famous pyramid. Its organisers are Vincent Delieuvin from the Department of Paintings, and Louis Frank, from the Department of Prints and Drawings. Although the exact number of works that will be showcased in this four-month exhibition is still unknown, the Louvre is expecting to receive loans from Italy and other countries to round out the five-painting da Vinci collection that the museum already has. In other words, this Leonardo da Vinci exhibition will host one third of all of the existing works that are attributed to him, and will include the Mona Lisa, Saint John the Baptist, and La Belle Ferronnière.
The exhibit was moved to autumn so it would not fall on the exact 500th anniversary of da Vinci’s death in May. This has allowed other museums to host events honouring the world-renowned quintessential Renaissance man.
As it would be expected, the genius’s native Italy holds some of his most treasured works. These include The Last Supper in Milan and other paintings in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Meanwhile, the Saint Jerome is held at the Vatican. Furthermore, the Sforza Castle in Milan will host an exhibition on da Vinci until 12 January 2020. Under the patronage of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (known as The Moor), da Vinci created his first great works. Among them were luxurious frescos that adorned various rooms of the Duke’s castle (https://milanocastello.it/).