Leonardo da Vinci visits Bucharest

The exhibition in honour of the genius and work of Leonardo da Vinci, which entails 30 paintings reproduced at their original size and over 40 machines, is open to the public Monday evening through 29 September at the Sun Plaza Shopping Centre in Bucharest. A press release quoted by Mediafax reports that the exhibition explores legends and myths webbed around the artist’s life and highlight the significant influence of Leonardo da Vinci’s work on the modern man and on his daily life.

Two of the most representative paintings of the Renaissance, “The Last Supper” (1495-1498) and “Mona Lisa” (approx. 1503-1506) and two of da Vinci’s most controversial works, “The Adoration of the Magi” (1481), unfinished due to the financial requirements imposed on the painter by the monks at San Donato a Scopeto Monastery who had also commissioned the painting and “Virgin of the Rocks” (1483-1486), both the first and second version, although it is rumoured that a third version exists, as well as “Madonna of the Carnation” (1478-1480), which was painted before the artist’s twentieth birthday are included among the reproductions displayed.

The three-dimensional machines displayed at the exhibition are faithful reproductions created following the original sketches in the Codex, Leonardo da Vinci’s series of notebooks containing all his discoveries and ideas. Most of the devices are interactive and allow visitors to study up-close the revolutionary ideas of a man who would forever leave his mark on human existence. Many of the inventions he drew could not be put into practice at that time for lack of necessary materials and production technology. The exhibition provided by Sun Plaza Shopping Centre has been visited by over 4 million people from Europe, U.S.A. and Asia so far. Access is free of charge.

Leonardo da Vinci was driven by a boundless thirst for knowledge that guided him throughout his life and shaped his personality. Born a perfectionist, the inventor believed sight was the main path toward a real and exhaustive knowledge of the phenomena around him. The major theme of his studies was “saper vedere” (Italian for knowing to see). Naturally, he used his creativity and inventiveness in areas which made use of graphic representation, such as painting, sculpture, architecture, and engineering and left numerous sketches and drawings to posterity.

Renowned both for his inventions (including the automobile, the submarine, the bicycle, the diving suit, the escalator, the winch, the bow, the helicopter, the glider, the parachute, the tank, the cannon, the catapult and many others) and his anatomical studies that led to fascinating discoveries on the symmetry of the human body (his most representative drawing in this respect being “The Vitruvian Man”), Leonardo da Vinci was undoubtedly a personality ahead of his time and a universal man of genius. His way of thinking and his discoveries continue to astonish us today, over 500 years later.