(ANSA) - TURIN - The exhibition devoted to Leonardo da Vinci and running at the Reggia di Venaria is not only an exhibition of his famous self-portrait but is actually a self-portrait of Leonardo's work, as well as an act of love for his genius, according to the event's two curators, Paola Salvi and Carlo Pedretti, the chair of Leonardo studies at the University of California in Los Angeles.

''This exhibition - packed with new information, created in this place of extraordinary Italian beauty and staged by Oscar-winning designer Dante Ferretti - is a kind of introduction to the large-scale exhibition that will open in Amboise, France on May 2, 2019 marking 500 years since Leonardo's death'', said Pedretti. ''I am very hopeful that Leonardo's self-portrait will be a part of that exhibition''. The present show, which is the last major event in the celebrations marking 150 years of Italian unification, not only features the renowned self-portrait on unusual loan from the Turin Royal Library with the consent of Culture Minister Giancarlo Galan, but also boasts around 30 original drawings and writings linked to the masterpiece. These works not only include exhibits by Leonardo's contemporaries bewitched by Leonardo's genius but also from the modern world, including Marcel Duchamp's bearded Mona Lisa in L.H.O.O.Q. and Andy Warhol's Last Supper.

The exhibition, which has already sold 25,000 advance tickets from around the world, was inaugurated by Turin Mayor Piero Fassino, Piedmont Governor Roberto Cota and La Reggia management, President Fabrizio Del Noce and Director Alberto Vanelli, plus numerous experts including Piero Angela.

The famous TV science presenter has prepared a 10-minute video, divided into two parts, one at the beginning and one at the end, which is proving particularly popular with the public.

With the assistance of the Rome art police team, which includes plastic surgeon Giorgio Giovannelli and artist Gianni Stillitano, the video reconstructs, in stages, what Leonardo da Vinci would have looked like as a younger man based on the portrait. This extraordinary process aims to depict Leonardo's face prior to aging, stroke, disease and loss of teeth shaped the distinctive features made famous in the self-portrait. Interestingly, the features revealed in the youthful reconstruction coincide perfectly with the face discovered by Piero Angela between the lines in a page of the Codex on the Flight of Birds, a discovery within a discovery. ''This is a top-quality exhibition, blending art and science, scientific rigour and the spectacular'', commented Mayor Piero Fassino. ''It is an exhibition that showcases Turin's new vocation as a city of great culture, a vocation which has recently been consolidated with the celebrations marking 150 years of Italian unification''.

The exhibition, 'Leonardo. Il genio e il Mito' (Leonardo: The Genius and the Legend) runs until January 29, 2012. (ANSA).