Leonardo Da Vinci. Science before Science

Leonardo Da Vinci. Science before Science

Scuderie del Quirinale 2019
Translation from German into English of the exhibition panels and contribution to the exhibition catalogue by scriptum

This exhibition presents the figure of Leonardo da Vinci within the dense network of cultural relationships that pervades engineering, technique, art and thought between the four and sixteenth centuries. Starting from the Tuscan education, to get to the Milanese stay and until the late Roman period, the exhibition retraces Leonardo’s work on the technological and scientific front and will trace the cultural connections with his contemporaries, to offer a finally wide vision of this great figure, often presented as an isolated genius.
The sections of the exhibition will explore the great themes faced by Leonardo on the side of technical and humanistic thought, at the center of the debate of Renaissance artists and technologists: the development of machines for large construction sites, the use of design and perspective as tools of knowledge and representation, the art of war between tradition and innovation, the dream of fantastic machines like those for flight, the passion for the representation of the machine element as such, the creation of solutions in the fields of work and production, reflection on the ideal city and the study of waterways, the rediscovery of the classical world and a reflection on how, over time, the myth of Leonardo was born and developed.

13th March 2019-30th June 2019