Program Brochure & Teacher’s Guide Leonardo3 srl Via Monte Napoleone, 9 - 20121 Milan - Italy www.leonardo3.net Copyright © 2010-2011 by Leonardo3 srl, Milan - Italy All rights reserved worldwide. None of the contents can be reproduced in any form without the written authorization of Leonardo3. The pages from the Codex Atlanticus were reproduced from the Hoepli edition of 1894-1904 and are the property of Leonardo3. The pages from the France Ma- nuscripts were reproduced from the L. Ravaisson-Mollien edition of 1881 and are the property of Leonardo3. The pages from theCodex on Flight were reprodu- ced from the T. Sabachnikoff edition of 1893 and are the property of Leonardo3. Index Program Brochure & Teachers’ Guide 01. The Exhibition......................................... 5 02. Codices........................................................ 11 › Manuscript.B................................................................ 13 › Codex.on.Flight............................................................ 21 › Codex.Atlanticus.......................................................... 29 03. Machines................................................... 39 › Mechanical.Lion........................................................... 42 › Harpsichord-Viola......................................................... 46 › Robot-Soldier............................................................... 50 › Self-Propelling.Cart...................................................... 54 › Great.Kite..................................................................... 58 › Aerial.Screw................................................................. 64 › Mechanical.Bat............................................................ 68 › Wire-Controlled.Bird..................................................... 72 › Leonardo’s.Bridges...................................................... 76 › Multi-Cannon.Gunship................................................. 82 › Da.Vinci's.Workshop.................................................... 86 › Physical.models........................................................... 91 04. Drawings.................................................. 115 › HyperView.................................................................. 126 05. Paintings.................................................. 131 06. Knowledge Test................................. 137 › Questions................................................................... 138 › Answers..................................................................... 147 07. Further Reading................................ 148 08. Curators.................................................... 155 09. Press Reviews.................................... 158 ‹ 5 › The Exhibition Recent decades have witnessed several dif- lies on very distinct and separate professionals: ferent exhibitions about Leonardo, from those a science historian, an art historian, a mechani- focusing on specific topics to those trying to cal engineer, a project designer, a carpenter, a synthesize his various activities. Although it model maker, etc. Interacting between these may seem difficult to make any new contribu- professionals takes time. Taddei and Zanon, on tions, the reality is quite the opposite. The artis- the other hand, have expertise in all these areas tic production of this great genius has certainly and can move between studying manuscripts, been the subject of much attention, study and to interpreting machines through models and publication, but this has not been the case with three-dimensional computer-aided simulations, his manuscripts. This is in part because they are to preparing everything from the first physical so difficult to understand and appreciate. Upon study models to those for exhibition, all in the his death, Leonardo left over 120 handwritten research center and workshops of Leonardo3. notebooks. Though many have been lost, today This requires artistic and technical skills as well there are still something like five thousand pag- as a perfect knowledge of all Leonardo’s manu- es (mostly scattered throughout Italy, France, scripts, since a design may appear in one codex England, Spain and the United States), most while all its essential details may be in another. of which contain drawings that have yet to be It is the purpose of this exhibition to make interpreted. Leonardo’s most important surviving manu- Leonardo has been celebrated as an artist since scripts, namely Manuscript B, the Codex on his own time. His works of engineering and Flight and the Codex Atlanticus, available to the therefore all his designs and studies of machines greater public. This is the first time since Na- were unknown for years, since the contents poleon transported these codices from Milan of the “codices” only began to be studied and to Paris in 1796 that they have been reunited, published at the beginning of the 19th century. thanks to their digitization. The application of Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the Artists from 1550 the highly advanced “L3 Digital Codex” tech- contains the first important biography of Leon- nology, developed by Leonardo3, means that ardo and makes reference to only one machine: the viewer can not only turn the pages of the the Mechanical Lion. There remain hundreds of manuscripts, but also understand and appreci- drawings of machines still to be explored even ate their contents, seen as they are in a totally today. In order to be fully appreciated, each ma- new light, thanks to models and three-dimen- chine must be understood and rebuilt – a decid- sional animations. While the impact of an artis- edly complicated exercise. Indeed, the so-called tic drawing is certainly immediate, even this can Self-Propelling Cart was so complex it took be appreciated and viewed in a different light about a century to build a model that could ac- when certain aspects are explained. This is even tually work. truer in the case of technical drawings (of which The present exhibition displays work carried Leonardo can be considered a very famous pre- out over the last five years by the scholars Mario cursor, if not the outright inventor) devoted to Taddei and Edoardo Zanon, namely the inter- machines and mechanisms, which must be ex- pretation of machines that have never been ex- plained in order to be appreciated. Otherwise, plored to this degree before, more than reinter- one’s initial curiosity of turning the pages of a preting already well-known designs. There are Leonardo codex is followed by a sense of bewil- precise reasons behind the exceptional efficiency derment and then a loss of interest. In honor and unique quality of Taddei and Zanon’s work. of Leonardo’s role as precursor, we have chosen Traditionally, “machine philology”, the path the most advanced visual language, i.e. the one from ancient drawings to their interpretation he probably would have used himself had he and the reconstruction of physical models, is been alive today: three-dimensional drawings. the result of long and laborious studies and re- Now, after a long period of study and work, the ‹ 5 › 01 The Exhibition public can view his designs through 3D draw- throughout his life and to which he devoted the ings of great impact and efficiency. greatest amount of his time. Traditionally called When it comes to Manuscript B, we carried the Codex on the Flight of Birds, it contains an out a very historically significant operation, be- invaluable analysis of bird flight. Even more cause all its pages have been restored digitally importantly, it also contains the design for a fly- and can be seen as they were when Leonardo ing machine, the Great Kite, which has never wrote them, or nearly so. It has also been re- before been identified or reconstructed. What turned to its original format of 100 pages, since is more, several passages constitute a veritable sixteen went missing due to thefts and losses. It flight manual with precise instructions for the was probably produced between 1487 and 1490 pilot. For this reason, we have renamed it the and is (together with the Codex Trivulzianus) Codex on Flight in our publications, removing the oldest notebook compiled by Leonardo to the reference to birds since this is a limited rep- come down to us. It is therefore of extraordi- resentation of its actual contents. The Codex on nary importance and includes designs for ev- Flight demonstrates the detailed and sophis- erything from flying, war and work machines to ticated nature of Leonardo’s studies on flight. architectural projects. Among these are also the Indeed, on folio 9r, he came very close to draw- drawings of the so-called Ideal City, identified ing the leading edge of the airfoil of modern by some as the town of Vigevano, Italy. This is airplanes. the manuscript that contains the famous Aerial The Codex Atlanticus, on the other hand, is a Screw, which many consider to be the forerun- miscellaneous collection of designs that span ner of the helicopter, as well as the mysterious most of Leonardo’s life (1478-1518). Com- drawing of a submarine. Our work on Manu- posed of 1119 folios, it is the most extensive and script B was authorized by the Libraries and Ar- important Da Vinci codex in the world. Until chives of the Institut de France, which preserves recently, it was preserved as a precious treasure the original manuscript. Perhaps, if Italy one day by the Ambrosiana Library of Milan until to produces the largest museum in the world de- see unbound in order to allow the general pub- voted to the complete works of Leonardo