When people think of Milan,
they seldom think of Leonardo Da Vinci. Yet the Renaissance Man
par excellence left many important marks on Italy's economic
capital during his stay at the end of the 15th century,
including the world-famous "Last Supper" mural in the Santa
Maria delle Grazie church.
A series of exhibits during the year of Expo Milan 2015
seeks to highlight the strong bonds between the man and the
city.
One such is "La Mente di Leonardo. Disegni di Leonardo dal
Codice Atlantico" ("The Mind of Leonardo. Leonardo's Designs
from the Codice Atlantico"), split into two parts and running
March 10 through October 31, the last day of Expo.
Each part will be shared between two locations - Milan's
Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana and the Sagrestia Monumentale
del Bramante, in Santa Maria delle Grazie.
Together, they mark the end of a cycle of 24 exhibits about
the Codex Atlanticus, as it is also known, held in sequence
since 2009.
Over two, three-month periods, each site will host 22
designs from the Codex and will draw visitors' attention to the
Renaissance master's skills - among others - as an engineer,
astronomer, botanist, architect, mapmaker and inventor. Overall
88 prints will be on display, with detailed explanations of what
they are.
"More than half of the drawings on display in this
double-exhibit have never before been seen in public, including
Leonardo's plans for the palace of King Francis 1st of France as
well as studies of concave mirrors and hydraulics," exhibit
curator Pietro Marani, explained during a press conference
Tuesday.
"La Mente di Leonardo" will take place as Milan's Palazzo
Reale and Castello Sforzesco museums - and even the city's
aquarium - all hold their own exhibits on Leonardo's years in
the city.
Prior to 2008, none of the designs from the Codex
Atlanticus had ever been seen before.
In order to loan a few images to a museum, the entire
volume would have had to be loaned, as all the 1,118 drawings
were bound in a single volume, Marani said. "Imagine the
insurance costs alone," he said, joking.
The Codex Atlanticus, which is owned by the Biblioteca
Ambrosiana, shouldn't be confused with the Codex Leicester,
another of Da Vinci's scientific journals, which holds the world
record sale price for a manuscript: it was acquired at a
Christie's auction in 1994 by Microsoft founder Bill Gates for
just shy of $31 million.
There is no estimate for the value of the Codice Atlantico,
representatives from the Fondazione Cardinale Federico Borromeo
- which supports the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in its cultural
efforts and is a big financial backer of the Codice exhibits -
told Ansa after the conference.
However estimates of insurance coverage for the manuscript
- which organizers said was the largest, single collection of
Leonardo's drawings to exist - range from one to three million
euros per page, they said.
Named for the oversize paper sheets onto which it is
printed - similar to those used in Leonardo's days to print
atlases and maps and very different from the small little
notebooks the master was accustomed to using - the Codice
Atlantico embraces the entire intellectual life of Da Vinci over
a period of more than 40 years, from 1478-1519, Marani said.
The Codex changed hands many times in its storied history,
reaching the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in 1815.
Interest for Leonardo's scientific drawings seems to be
strong all over the world and parts of the Codex have been
displayed in other cities, including Jerusalem, Tokyo and,
currently, Singapore.
As the conference was taking place, Fondazione Borromeo
Chairman Giorgio Ricchebuono was traveling to Azerbaijan to
discuss the possibility of an exhibit in Baku.
While pictures of Da Vinci's flying machine designs are
fairly common and perhaps no longer so surprising, seeing
original works so close up - in the master's famous
right-to-left mirror writing scrawl - is a powerful and
absorbing experience, leaving viewers ever more amazed with the
genius of Leonardo.
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