About half a millennium after Leonardo da Vinci - who was not only a painter and sculptor but also an inventor and scientist - designed some of his important inventions, an exhibition in Rome presents his ability to see the future.
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About half a millennium after Leonardo da Vinci - who was not only a painter and sculptor but also an inventor and scientist - designed some of his important inventions, an exhibition in Rome presents his ability to see the future.
The exhibition "Leonardo da Vinci: The Intriguing Genius", which opened on Tuesday at the Nazionale dei Lincei Accademia, attempts to examine how da Vinci managed to design diving suits, a bicycle and a car, hundreds of years before the tools required to build them were developed.
The exhibition does not display copies of the "Mona Lisa" or "The Last Supper", but only ingenious inventions taken from Da Vinci's "Codex Atlantic", a 1,286-page collection of drawings and writings.
Next to Leonardo's models, their modern versions are presented in the exhibition, and often there is not such a big difference between the two. Leonardo was, it seems, the first to design a means of transportation that was supposed to move under its own power. He did this in 1478 - about 431 years before the creation of the "Model T" (the first mass-produced car from Henry Ford's factory). The drawing is shown next to a modern Ferrari engine, considered by many to be the pinnacle of 21st century mechanics.
Visitors will also be able to see in the exhibition more prosaic aspects of Da Vinci's world: alongside a drawing of a cannon or a mathematical equation, you can also see a shopping list or a note that reads "Why is my soup cold?"
One response
I was in this museum (in Rome) this year! I have no words, amazing!! A portable piano, a diving suit, a bicycle, his original writings... a must!