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The Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci is located in
Vinci,
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
's birthplace, in the province of
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
. It is part of the
Museo Leonardiano di Vinci.
[S. Landi, "A proposito del Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci in Ossimori", Periodico di Antropologia e Scienze Umane, 1994 (Italian)]
History
The museum was inaugurated on October 2, 1993, under the patronage of the
Regione Toscana
it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Citizenship
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 = Italian
, demogra ...
,
Provincia di Firenze, and the Municipality of Vinci. Support was provided by the
Armand Hammer Center for Leonardo Studies (
University of California at Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...
) and .
The museum director is
Alessandro Vezzosi
Alessandro Vezzosi is an Italian art critic, Leonardo scholar, artist, expert on interdisciplinary studies and creative museology, he is also the author of hundreds of exhibits, publications and conferences, in Italy and abroad (from the United St ...
and the President of the International Association is Agnese Sabato.
Carlo Pedretti
Carlo Pedretti (6 January 1928 – 5 January 2018) was an Italian historian. In his lifetime, he was considered one of the world's leading experts on the life and works of Leonardo da Vinci. He was a professor of art history and Armand Hammer Ch ...
was the honorary president until his death on January 5, 2018.
The museum was founded by scholars and artists as the first museum dedicated to
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
. His works as an artist, scientist, inventor, and designer are explored through the theory of the
Imaginary Museum. The museum has developed exhibitions such as:
*''Leonardo Art, Science and Utopia'' in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
in 1987
*''Leonardo Disappeared and Found'' in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
in 1988
*''Leonardo News and Myth'' in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, 1989 and in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
, in 1991
It also created the first
CD-Rom
A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...
dedicated to Leonardo, ''Leonardo:'' ''The Digital Painting'' (ACTA, 1989).
Guidelines
The Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci presents research, philological inquiry and creativity. The three main objectives of the museum are:
* Dissemination of knowledge about the true Leonardo, beyond the stereotypes, rhetoric, and legend.
* Reporting the results of new studies and interpretations on Leonardo and also his school and influence.
* Reporting new interpretations of his work that take into account both the social and cultural context of the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
.
Location
The museum is located within the in Vinci, in the province of Florence, Italy. In 1868, as recorded by
Giuseppi Garabaldi, ownership of the castle was shared with the counts of
Masetti da Bagnano and the counts
Guidi Guidi is an Italian surname shared by several notable people:
* Alessandro Pier Guidi (born 1983), racing driver from Italy
* Angela Maria Guidi Cingolani (1896–1991), Italian politician
* Antonio Guidi (1927–2013), Italian actor and voice ac ...
. Opposite the museum entrance is the former location of a mill (with a millpond) that was operated by Leonardo's father Ser Piero and his uncle Francesco, beginning in 1478. The nineteenth-century portion of the building was built on the foundations of the millpond owned by the city and by the da Vinci family.
Due to rainwater leaking into the exhibition areas from the overlying building, the museum was temporarily closed and is planned to reopen in 2019.
Collections
Started in 1972, the collection contains a variety of items pertaining to the city of Vinci. It was designed to assemble a variety of artwork, artifacts, and documents relevant to the museum's mission.
The collection includes original antique paintings, tools, and instruments from Leonardo's time and native land. Objects in the collection include models based on his projects, relevant memorabilia, and thousands of artifacts, including ''Knots'' by
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer (; ; hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer (without an umlaut) or Due ...
and the ''Dome of Arts and Ideas'' by
Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more t ...
, both of which are inspired by Leonardo.
Archives
The Leonardeschi
The Museo Ideale traces its origins to the 1993 exhibition, ''Leonardo and Leonardism in Naples and Rome.'' Modeled after the
Capodimonte Museum
Museo di Capodimonte is an art museum located in the Palace of Capodimonte, a grand House of Bourbon, Bourbon palazzo in Naples, Italy. The museum is the prime repository of Neapolitan painting and decorative art, with several important works ...
and
Palazzo Barberini
The Palazzo Barberini ( en, Barberini Palace) is a 17th-century palace in Rome, facing the Piazza Barberini in Rione Trevi. Today, it houses the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, the main national collection of older paintings in Rome.
History
...
, the museum is dedicated to researching and cataloguing works by Leonardo's collaborators, students and followers, in order to highlight characteristics of da Vinci's studio, as well as the extension of his influence in various Italian and European regions.
The aim is to represent and compare a growing number of works by
Leonardeschi
The Leonardeschi were the large group of artists who worked in the studio of, or under the influence of, Leonardo da Vinci. They were artists of Italian Renaissance painting, although his influence extended to many countries within Europe.
As ...
artists via scientific examination and iconographic analysis, in order to attribute works.
Leonardisms
The museum also aims to collect all the quotes, derivations, uses and misuses of images of Leonardo, from art to mass media, from the 16th century to the present. This is a collection in progress, started in 1972, that includes thousands of original artworks and artifacts, reproductions and documentary materials from around the world, from Old Master engravings to
Marcel Duchamp
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...
,
bookplates
An ''Ex Libris'' (from ''ex-librīs'', ), also known as a bookplate (or book-plate, as it was commonly styled until the early 20th century), is a printed or decorative label pasted into a book, often on the front endpaper, to indicate ownership. ...
and
stamps
Stamp or Stamps or Stamping may refer to:
Official documents and related impressions
* Postage stamp, used to indicate prepayment of fees for public mail
* Ration stamp, indicating the right to rationed goods
* Revenue stamp, used on documents to ...
, memorabilia from the nineteenth-century cinema, and advertising.
Leonardo's fingerprints
Following the discovery of
fingerprints
A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surf ...
in Leonardo's paintings and manuscripts, the Museo Ideale has been working systematically on the topic of Leonardo's fingerprints. This research is far from reaching definitive conclusions and is subject to misunderstanding and falsification. With the collaborative and interdisciplinary advice of other institutions conducting scholarly investigations, the museum aims to identify and reconstruct Leonardo's fingerprints and to contribute to
anthropological
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
knowledge of the artist and his works, which has been often executed not only with the brush, but with the use of his bare fingers, too.
Museo Ideale of the Renaissance
The museum has begun external activities by curating exhibitions and publications:
* ''
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...
and the Idea of Beauty'' and ''Raphael Lives'' (Rome 2001)
* ''The School of the World: Leonardo and
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...
'' (Vinci 2004)
* ''Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael'' (
Gothenburg
Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
2011 and
Istanbul
Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
2012)
* Books: ''Raffaello Universale'' (2010) and ''Michelangelo Assoluto'' (2012).
The Garden of Leonardo and Utopia
The creation of the Garden of Leonardo and Utopia, located just outside Vinci, was created as the outdoor section of the Museo Ideale. It was initiated as a project of the "village of creativity" and as a theme park called "Center of art-nature – science for the Tuscany of Leonardo". Currently, the garden is awaiting approval for its reopening.
The Labyrinth of Leonardo was constructed in 1997 as an artwork based on drawings by Leonardo. The first piece was designed with
sunflowers
''Helianthus'' () is a genus comprising about 70 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae commonly known as sunflowers. Except for three South American species, the species of ''Helianthus'' are native to N ...
, while the second was a
labyrinth
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the ...
created with 1,500 trees of ''vinci'' (
purple willow), forming of pathways. In 1999, the garden was reinvented again, with its spiral shape continuously growing, inspired by the "Avenue" by
Bruno Munari
Bruno Munari (October 24, 1907 in Milan – September 29, 1998 in Milan) was an Italian artist, designer, and inventor who contributed fundamentals to many fields of visual arts (painting, sculpture, film, industrial design, graphic design) in ...
. Plants in the garden include the
laurel tree
Laurel is part of the English common name of many trees and other plants, particularly those of the laurel family (''Lauraceae''). Most laurels are highly poisonous.
Plants called "laurel" include:See article for additional common names.
* Alexan ...
of President
Azeglio Ciampi, and other plants chosen by artists, scientists, poets, authorities, and supporters of the museum.
Activities
Multimedia produced by the museum include the ''Leonardo da Vinci e il Codice Hammer'': exhibition and CD-ROM (1994); Leonardo. ''La pittura'', ACTA-EMME, (1995); ''La Biblioteca ideale di Leonardo'', (1999); ''I Parchi di ingegni e meraviglie in Toscana. Da Leonardo e Buontalenti al terzo millennio'' for Regione Toscana, (2007); ''Itinerario leonardiano'' per l'IMSS, (2008).
Publications and traveling exhibitions in Italy and abroad include: conferences, educational projects for schools, work in progress with artists, research studies and presentations (''Sulle tracce di Leonardo'', ''Leonardo cinquecento anni dopo'', ''Vinci e Leonardo'', ''La Toscana nell'arte del XX secolo'', ''Capolavori del mito'', ''Processi al mito di Leonardo'', ''Il Codice da Vinci di Dan Brown: vero/falso'')... One of the museum's projects was to exhibit the
Codex Leicester
__NOTOC__
The Codex Leicester (also briefly known as the Codex Hammer) is a collection of scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci. The Codex is named after Thomas Coke, who purchased it in 1717; he later became the Earl of Leicester. The manu ...
(bought by
Bill Gates
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...
) and the Tavola Doria, a copy of Leonardo's lost
Battle of Anghiari fresco
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...
.
In April 2016, living descendants of Leonardo da Vinci and a new genealogical tree of the da Vinci family were discovered after decades of research. This was presented in the Teatro di Vinci.
External exhibitions organized by the museum include:
* ''Leonardo's bridges'' (
Malmö
Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal populat ...
and
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
, 1993, with the ''
Lady with an Ermine
The ''Lady with an Ermine'' ; pl, Dama z gronostajem). It is sometimes known as the ''Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani'', the ''Portrait of an Unknown Woman'', the ''Lady with a Ferret'', or the ''Lady with a Marten''., group=n is a portrait pain ...
'')
* ''Leonardo. Le favole e il mare'' (Sestri Levante, 1996)
* ''Leonardo. Dal Mediterraneo alla luna'' (Cagliari and Alghero, 1997)
* ''Il Giardino dell'utopia da Leonardo a Pratolino'' (1999)
* ''Leonardo and Europe'' (
Assisi
Assisi (, also , ; from la, Asisium) is a town and ''comune'' of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio.
It is generally regarded as the birthplace of the Latin poet Propertius, born aroun ...
,
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
, Rome, Biel-Bienne, 2000-2001)
* ''Léonard. L'artist de la science'' (
Strasburg, 2002)
* ''Leonardo. I giochi e lo sport'' (
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
, 2004;
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
, 2005)
* ''Leonardo and the Codex Leicester'' (
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
, 2005)
* ''Leonardo. I segreti della creazione nell'arte e nella scienza'' (Athens, 2006)
* ''La Joconde inattendue'' (Clos-Lucé-Amboise, 2007)
* ''Leonardo a Firenze'' (2008)
* ''AND THERE WAS LIGHT, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael. The Masters of Renaissance, seen in a New Light'' (
Gothenborg
Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
, 2010)
* ''Leonardo a Piombino'' (2011)
* ''La Gioconda è nuda'' (
Brindisi
Brindisi ( , ) ; la, Brundisium; grc, Βρεντέσιον, translit=Brentésion; cms, Brunda), group=pron is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea.
Histo ...
, 2011)
* ''Mona Lisa Unveiled'' (
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
, 2011)
* ''Leonardo and the idea of beauty'' (
Shizuoka
Shizuoka can refer to:
* Shizuoka Prefecture, a Japanese prefecture
* Shizuoka (city), the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture
* Shizuoka Airport
* Shizuoka Domain, the name from 1868 to 1871 for Sunpu Domain, a predecessor of Shizuoka Prefecture
...
,
Fukuoka
is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...
, Tokyo, with the ''Scapiliata'', 2011-2012)
* ''The great masters. Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo'' (Istanbul, 2012)
* ''Leonardo-Mona Lisa-The Myths'' (
Kaohsiung
Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsi ...
, 2013;
Taipei
Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...
2013-2014)
* ''Leonardo Da Vinci. Beyond the visible'' (Edo Tokyo Museum, 2016)
* ''Da Clos Lucé al Louvre, i tre capolavori di Leonardo Da Vinci'' (Du Clos Lucé au Louvre, les trois chefs-d’œuvre de Léonard de Vinci, in collaboration with the Centre de Rècherche et de Restauration des Musées de France - C2RMF)
Bibliography
* Il Museo Astronave, Vinci, November 1993
* S. Landi, A proposito del Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci in Ossimori, magazine of Anthropology and Human sciences, 1994
* I musei etnografici del territorio fiorentino, curated by P. Calosi, G. Cherubini, Z. Giuffoletti, C. Poni, L. Rombai, Provincia di Firenze, 1994
* Università La Sapienza di Roma. Facoltà di Sociologia a.a. 1995/1996 Mundaneum. Analysis on the organization of the Museo Ideale Leonardo Da Vinci
*
A. Vezzosi, (coll. «
Universale Electa/Gallimard»
º 73 first edition by Electa/Gallimard in 1996, coedition in 14 languages and countries); e-book , coll. «
Découvertes Gallimard
(, ; in United Kingdom: ''New Horizons'', in United States: ''Abrams Discoveries'') is an editorial collection of illustrated monographic books published by the Éditions Gallimard in pocket format. The books are concise introductions to pa ...
»
º 293 app. Gallimard (Paris, 2013) and coedition in Japanese (Sogensha) and Korean (Sigongsa).
* Carlo Pedretti, in Il Sole 24 ore, 2.XI.1997.
* Image and Science, XIV, CNRS, Paris, 1997.
* Vinci e Leonardo, magazine edited by the Museo Ideale (since 1997).
* Valerio Dehò, A. Vezzosi, Leonardo in azione e poesia, Vinci, MILDV, 2001.
* A. Sabato - A.Vezzosi (edited by), Il museo ideale Leonardo da Vinci, guide, Vinci, 2002.
* A. Vezzosi, In viaggio con Leonardo. Invenzioni e macchine di un genio umanissimo, Vinci, MILDV, 2003.
* A. Sabato, Il Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci,in Amici dei Musei, anno XXX, N.98, April–June 2004.
* A. Sabato, A. Vezzosi, Leonardo: mito e verità : riscoperte, attualità e nodi della conoscenza, Vinci, MILDV, 2006.
* C. Pedretti, Così celebre e così incompresa and A. Vezzosi, Nuda alla metà, in «L'Osservatore Romano», 11-II-2011, p. 5.
* A. Vezzosi, Leonardo infinito, Reggio Emilia, Scripta Maneant, 2008.
Naked Mona Lisa goes on show* La Gioconda è nuda / Mona Lisa Unveiled, FKR, San Marino, 2011.
References
External links
*
{{coord missing, Italy
Da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
Museums in Tuscany
Da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...