Museum of Science Presents Da Vinci —The Genius

Museum of Science brings to Boston Da Vinci –The Genius—a vibrant, interactive exhibition that explores every aspect of Leonard da Vinci’s world-changing innovations in the arts, science, medicine, engineering and design.
 
Through life-size interpretations of the great thinker’s inventions and unparalleled studies of his iconic art, the exhibit, will immerse visitors in the richness of Leonardo da Vinci’s remarkable work as a maker, painter, anatomist, sculptor, engineer, musician and architect. The exhibit features more than 200 exhibit pieces including full-scale recreations of inventions, entertaining animations of da Vinci’s most notable Renaissance works and an eye-opening, in-depth analysis of his most famous painting, “Mona Lisa.” Museum-goers will be able to interact with many of these displays to gain an up-close, hands-on understanding of the scientific principles behind them.

“Leonardo da Vinci was a visionary who was ahead of his time," says Museum president and director Ioannis Miaoulis. "This extraordinary exhibition reflects and reinforces the fundamental connection between creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving that are at the heart of the Museum’s mission which encourages young people to develop their understanding of the natural and human-made world. Da Vinci had a remarkable, inquisitive mind, an insatiable curiosity about the world around him and the ability to conceptualize, design and construct tools and technologies. These essential STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills are vital to today’s students and tomorrow’s innovators.”
 
Developed with the assistance of the Museo Leonardo da Vinci in Rome, Italy, and a team of experts in Italy and France, Da Vinci – The Genius features 17 themed areas of Da Vinci’s work, offering visitors an incomparable look at the ultimate “Renaissance Man,” the mastermind who laid the groundwork for some of modern society’s most significant inventions, such as the helicopter, airplane, automobile, submarine, parachute and bicycle.
 
All of the inventions brought to life for Da Vinci – The Genius were crafted by Italian artisans, many using the same techniques and materials available during the 15th and 16th centuries. Scouring more than 6,000 pages from Da Vinci’s personal codices (notebooks), the artisans unravelled hidden clues, exposed intentional mistakes and deciphered the mirror-image writing that Da Vinci employed to protect his work.

Among the most compelling components of Da Vinci – The Genius, the Secrets of Mona Lisa features the findings of French scientist, Pascal Cotte. Granted unprecedented access by the French government and the Louvre Museum, Cotte was permitted to take “Mona Lisa” off the wall and out of its frame to conduct an analysis over a two-year period that revealed dozens of secrets about history’s most elusive art piece, all verified and approved by the scholars and curators. The exhibit includes Cotte’s studies and 25 of his most credible revelations, illustrated by 40 super-magnified, high-resolution sectional images exploring every aspect of the work.
 
Other exhibit highlights include animated presentations of “The Last Supper,” the iconic “Vitruvian Man” which depicts ideal human proportions, the “Sforza Horse” sculpture, The “Virgin of the Rocks” often referred to as “The Madonna of the Rocks,” the controversial “Bella Principessa,” often attributed to Da Vinci, as well as detailed anatomical sketches and preparatory drawings of the “Anghiari Battle.” Da Vinci’s mysterious alphabet and writing techniques are featured in touch-screen versions of his actual codices.
 
The exhibition was developed by Grande Exhibitions, under the kind auspices of the Commune di Roma, Commune di Firenze and Citta Di Venezia and with the assistance of Pascal Cotte of Lumiere Technologies, France.
 
Da Vinci – The Genius is included with regular Exhibit Halls admission: $25 for adults, $21 for seniors (60+), and $20 for children (3-11). For more information, the public can call 617/723-2500 or visit www.mos.org.
 
ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE, BOSTON
One of the world's largest science centers and New England's most attended cultural institution, the Museum introduces about 1.5 million visitors a year to STEM via programs and interactive exhibits. An extraordinary variety of learning experiences span the Yawkey Gallery on the Charles River, Hall of Human Life, Thomson Theater of Electricity, Charles Hayden Planetarium, Mugar Omni Theater, Gordon Current Science & Technology Center, 4-D Theater, and Butterfly Garden.The Science Behind Pixar, created with Pixar Animation Studios, is touring nationally. The Museum's National Center for Technological Literacy® curricula, including the award winning Engineering is Elementary, have reached an estimated 10.5 million students and 122,400 educators. The Museum sparks teens
worldwide to use digital technology via The Clubhouse Network and has led a $41 million National Science Foundation-funded Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network of science museums. Visit: http://www.mos.org.
 
ABOUT GRANDE EXHIBITIONS
Grande Exhibitions specializes in the creation, design, production, promotion and installation of large-scale international traveling exhibitions and permanent exhibition experiences of broad cultural appeal, which are engaging, entertaining and educational.
Grande Exhibitions conceptualizes exhibition experiences of timeless brand appeal and transforms them into visually and technically stunning exhibit masterpieces, ready to tour internationally. Its collection of exhibitions has been hosted in over 90 cities across six continents, to audiences in excess of eight million people.
Grande Exhibitions operates from its head office in Melbourne, Australia, with satellite offices in London, UK and Santiago, Chile. Grande Exhibitions also owns and operates Museo Leonardo Da Vinci – a permanent museum in a prestigious central location in Rome.
 
ABOUT PASCAL COTTE
Engineer optician, Cotte is the inventor of the first multi spectral high definition camera. His revolutionary lighting allows for the conservation of the digitized documents.
Pascal Cotte has worked for over 20 years in his own high technology and IT companies to develop video solutions for major television studios as well as the first Macintosh webcams and video cards, then flatbed scanners. He later invented the Jumboscan camera and the Jumbolux for digitizing large format documents with unequalled precision, with seven microns distortion, before developing the multi spectral camera. Pascal Cotte is a cofounder of LT2, and at the head of scientific research.
He digitized the “Mona Lisa” in the most recent analysis of the artwork, with exceptional detail and accuracy of colors never before obtained. He contributed to the success of the European project “Crisatel” to create a new standard of digitization of the global pictorial documents.