£20 to see just one painting ... but it is a da Vinci!
IN PARIS, art fans are scrambling to get into a blockbuster exhibition at the Louve featuring some of Leonardo da Vinci’s finest works.
But in London, a new show at the National Gallery offers a somewhat more exclusive experience for connoisseurs – a hefty £20 entrance fee to see just one of the Renaissance master’s paintings.
Leonardo: Experience A Masterpiece, opens tomorrow to celebrate 500 years since the painter’s death, with what is being billed as an ‘immersive experience’ of The Virgin Of The Rocks – one of his most celebrated paintings, which the public has been able to see at the museum for free for more than 100 years.
Caroline Campbell, the National Gallery’s director of collections and research, said: ‘This whole exhibition is about getting slower looking. We want to get people to spend more time looking at a really great work of art, because we feel that people sometimes spend 15 seconds looking at a painting in the gallery.’
The exhibition will also aim to explain da Vinci’s complex creative processes behind The Virgin Of The Rocks, which were recently discovered under the paint using X-rays and infrared technology, including initial designs and an early sketch that show ‘significant differences’ to the finished piece.
Gabriele Finaldi, the National Gallery’s director, said: ‘It is my hope that people will come out of the exhibition [with] a deeper appreciation of the significance of the painting.’