Da Vinci - The Genius Exhibition Aug 19, 2011 - Oct 23, 2011 Contact Information Address: 311 Poratge Avenue P: 1-855-985-5000 W: http://www.DaVinciTheGenius.com “Da Vinci – The Genius,” the most complete and comprehensive traveling exhibition ever created on Leonardo Da Vinci, will be on display at the MTS Centre Exhibition Hall from August 19th to October 23rd. “We are pleased to bring the “Da Vinci – The Genius” exhibit to Winnipeg as our third and final installment in this great location,” said Kevin Donnelly, Vice-President & General Manager of MTS Centre. “The success of our first two exhibits has kept us on the radar of these incredible touring exhibits and helped to make this partnership possible.” The exhibition, created by Grande Exhibitions, the Anthropos Foundation, Italy and Pascal Cotte, France demonstrates the full scope of Leonardo Da Vinci’s remarkable genius as an inventor, artist, anatomist, sculptor, engineer, musician and architect. It has taken over 10 years to create the exhibition, which features a vast array of full-scale machine inventions crafted from Da Vinci’s personal codices notebooks , as well as reproductions of his most famous Renaissance art, including the Mona Lisa, Virgin of the Rocks, and The Annunciation, amazing anatomical sketches, the preparatory drawings of the Anghiari Battle, and three-dimensional interactive presentations of the Last Supper, the Vitruvian Man, and the Sforza Horse sculpture that offer never before seen perspectives on these famous works. A highlight section from Paris is the “Secrets of Mona Lisa” which showcases the work of French engineer Pascal Cotte. His life-long passion for the study and preservation of the Mona Lisa led him to invent the cutting edge 240-megapixel Multi-spectral Imaging Camera, which uses patented infrared technology and intense illumination to scan the painting and virtually peel away layers of varnish applied over centuries. With his camera, Cotte was able to uncover how the Mona Lisa looked as she was originally painted, including layers of over-painting, restoration and attempts at preservation - even identifying the individual pigments that Da Vinci used. Cotte was granted unprecedented access to the Mona Lisa through the cooperation of the Ministry of Culture in France and The Louvre Museum, to photograph the painting “in the nude” and then scientifically examine the findings. His amazing revelations are displayed in gallery style and in full on super size, high resolution prints, with the largest being the 14ft x 10ft giant infra-red of Mona Lisa “This exhibition was created to celebrate Leonardo Da Vinci’s great works and place them all together in a single location where people can come and marvel at the brilliance of this great mind,” said Bruce Peterson, Founder and Managing Director of Grande Exhibitions. “Leonardo Da Vinci is arguably the greatest genius the world has ever known and this show makes it abundantly clear why that proposition is virtually irrefutable.” Under the direction of Modesto Veccia, president of the Anthropos Association and curator and founder of Il Genio di Leonardo Da Vinci Museo in Rome, a cadre of Italian artisans has spent the last decade studying and interpreting Da Vinci’s codices and crafting the machine inventions contained in the exhibition. These artisans have created over 120 of Da Vinci’s machine inventions, 65 of which are on display in the exhibition and have crafted these where possible using techniques and materials of 15th century Italy, including wood, cotton, brass, iron, canvas and chord. Most of what is known about Da Vinci’s scientific ideas comes from his codices. Of the at least 24,000 pages he is believed to have originally penned, only 6,000 or so remain intact today. In his codices, he wrote and drew about geometry, engineering, fauna and flora, mathematics, physics and philosophy. He created incredibly detailed anatomical sketches, and engineered extremely innovative designs for buildings and mechanical devices, most of which were never actually built while Da Vinci was alive. Adding to the challenge of bringing Da Vinci’s ideas to life is that he wrote his codices in a kind of shorthand that he invented, and using “mirror image writing,” starting at the right side of the page and moving left. The artisans that have created Da Vinci’s works have spent countless hours translating an old Florentine dialect and deciphering Da Vinci’s shorthand. The many components on display in the 10,000-square-foot space are intended to delight patrons of all ages. The inventions on display will focus on the following themes: Physics & Mechanical Principles, Civil Machines, Flight Studies Machines, Military Machines, Hydraulic Machines and Musical Instruments. Among the many inventions found in Da Vinci’s codices, on display will be his visions for the glider, parachute, the precursor to the modern helicopter, the bicycle, forerunner to the modern military tank, automobile, submarine, ball bearing and gear systems, among many other amazing inventions that were far ahead of their time. “Da Vinci – The Genius” opens to the public on August 19th and can be viewed Monday through Saturday from 10:00 am – 8:00 pm and on Sunday from 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm. Ticket prices are Adults $19.95; Students up to 18 or those with valid student card $15.95; Children 12 and under $12.95; School/Group $10.95. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster at www. .ca or charge-by-phone at 1-855-985-5000..
Event Details. Location:
311 Poratge Avenue