Last night was the culmination of
The Life of Leonardo da Vinci a five part Questar video series. It was a real tour de force. I enjoyed it, and I think Cathy did too --- it was her decision to watch the last three episodes or 3 solid hours of TV (something unusual for her). Now I have a better understanding of good--old Leonard. He was not only a painter, but a scientist and an engineer. A sculptor like Michelangelo or Bernini, a lover like Raphaello (although I still do not understand his relation with his pretty male companions), or a violent man like Caravaggio he was not. As for his Mona Lisa (where does this name come from? ) or better La Gioconda he missed the opportunity to sell it, somehow he was very attached to it (her). If you delete her hair and clothes from the painting she looks very different, like someone from our time. A beautiful expression!
This morning I then decided to look for some of his inventions and I am amazed at what he accomplished. A good place to see this is
Leonardo Da Vinci Inventions and if you want to guess what his different inventions are go to
Leonardo's Mysterious Machinery. And if you want to see some of his drawings (to me one of the best part of these places) visit
Suzannah Hills' article in The Daily Mail. All of the above is just to convince you that we should go to the
Macchine de Leonardo exposition which has been in Rome since 2009 and will close in April 30, 2015. A
google map indicates we can walk there in 28 minutes from our apartment. I hope you agree with me...
Of course, I agree with you! However, I have a lot of catching up to do on the artists. You are watching three solid hours of Leonardo while I advise Laina on what to wear clubbing (bet you didn't know I knew about such things....I don't).
ReplyDeleteI keep telling Fernando that Questar wasn't the producer of the video series but that it was an Italian/Spanish mini-series for TV from 1971 and that the English was dubbed. He's still not convinced...
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