The Venetian’s Da Vinci—The Genius exhibit explores the world of a Renaissance master
By Matt Kelemen
Photography by Beverly Poppe
Digital Imaging Specialist: Chris Owen
Model: Misty Brown/Envy Model Management
Hair and makeup: Christiné Copeland
The Venetian 10 a.m.-8 p.m. daily, $25 adults, $23 seniors and military, $20 Southern Nevada residents with ID, $18 children 5-12, all plus tax and fee, $17 students 13 and over with ID. 702.414.9000
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci is the most enigmatic of the Renaissance masters, the “universal genius” in a peer group that included Michelangelo and Raphael. Many of Leonardo’s greatest visions never materialized, though, as his ideas came to him faster than he could attempt to create them. Flying machines, weapons of war, mechanical men, a mirrored room and an entire city are just some of the engineering and technical designs that filled his many codices, or sketchbooks. Those designs are fully manifested as part of the Da Vinci—The Genius exhibit, a collection of 75 machines built to Leonardo’s specifications by Florentine artisans and obtained in 2005 from Rome’s Il Genio di Leonardo da Vinci Museo. In 2007, the machines and models were combined with Secrets of the Mona Lisa, an exhibit resulting from French scientific engineer Pascal Cotte’s unprecedented, in-depth study of Leonardo’s most famous painting at its home in Paris’ Louvre.
The tour begins with encased re-creations of the artists’ sketchbooks and full-scale models of the artist’s famous flying machines. A whirligig-inspired “Aerial Screw,” a hang glider and machine designed to achieve lift with flapping wings lend large-scale wonder to the exhibit. Flight instruments help segue to more practical concepts on display: a wooden bicycle, Leonardo’s version of the Archimedes’ screw, household appliances, anatomy sketches based on the study of cadavers, a portable piano and a diving suit complete with breathing apparatus. New to the exhibit is a mold and bronze cast of Horse and Rider, a sculpture originally made from beeswax that has been authenticated as a true Leonardo.
Leonardo’s war machines are represented mostly in scaled-down versions. A wooden tank, siege apparatus with a roof to protect soldiers and a catapult provide insight into how the artist had to make a living in order to make time for pet projects, such as sketching his iconic Vitruvian Man. But the most fascinating insights come from the findings of Cotte, whose multispectral imaging of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre revealed secrets beneath layers of paint. A reproduction on a poplar panel sits in the middle of the room, with a huge version on the wall behind it.
Cotte was on hand for the opening day, and shared findings such as the likelihood that “Mona Lisa” originally had eyelashes that may have dissolved due to restorative efforts, and Leonardo never painted columns that were later cut from the panel. “Leonardo is a genius, of course,” says Cotte. “But this is a human, not just a genius who thought of things and they came out perfect. He changed his mind all the time. He worked, he worked, he worked.”
