The year 2019 will be under the seal of the genius of Leonardo da Vinci. He died on 02 may 1519, at age 67, in the arms of Francis I, according to legend, at the château du Clos Lucé in Amboise, the last home, Europe is preparing to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the one which embodies almost the only prosperous period of the Renaissance. In the framework of the celebrations, a large exhibition dedicated to the scientific genius of Leonardo da Vinci opens Wednesday at Rome until 30 June. «La scienza prima della scienza» («science before science»), it is also this Leonard, explains to the AFP Claudio Giorgione, curator of this exhibition revisits the work of scientific and technological of the artist of The mona lisa.

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More than 200 pieces accompany the visitor throughout this course that reveals famous works as his helicopter and his parachute, but also original drawings, rarely exhibited, excerpts from the Codex Atlantic, one of his most important collections of manuscripts.

The exhibition opens on to an impressive replica of a crane in wood and its counterweights of stone, used for the construction of the dome of the cathedral of Florence, and that the young Leonardo had carefully drawn in one of his first «sketch techniques». But the city of Milan, well-ordered, also inspired Leonardo for his project of the ideal city and those intended to make navigable the river Adda in Lombardy, as evidenced by multiple sketches and plans exposed.

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An entire room is then dedicated to the «military genius» of Leonardo, with several reproductions of his machines of war, including his famous «crossbow giant». «I make armored cars, safe and unassailable», he assured to Milan in 1482 to the duke Ludovico Maria Sforza, who hired him as a military engineer. Thus was born the «carro armato», one of the first tanks in history, of which a reproduction is exposed. The famous flying machines designed by the maestro put an end point to this journey which reveals how Leonardo was far from being just one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance.

Jocondes naked Chantilly

Sensual, enigmatic, cheeky: forty Jocondes naked and other ladies bare, ancestors or heirs of one who was born in the workshop of Leonardo da Vinci in the Sixteenth century, will be reunited this summer at the domaine de Chantilly (Oise) for a great exhibition. Proposed from 1 June to 6 October, the exhibition «will take the form of a large police investigation and immersive, explaining for the first time the results of scientific analyses carried out during several months on the mona lisa naked of the musée Condé of Chantilly,» said in front of the press, the curator of the exhibition Mathieu Deldicque.

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«mona lisa naked» at the château de Chantilly a masterpiece acquired by the duke of Aumale in 1862 would have «been carried out in the workshop of the great master, with his involvement likely», according to the latest analyses. MICHEL URTADO/AFP

«It will also bring together all the Jocondes naked » and possible descendent, is a forty works, of which six are assigned to the students of Leonardo da Vinci, borrowed from private and public collections in several countries «to be able to compare». The results of the analyses were released in early march. The mona lisa naked the castle of Chantilly, the masterpiece acquired by the duke of Aumale in 1862 and whose origins have long been disputed, «has been carried out in the workshop of the great master, with his involvement likely.»

«To understand the genesis of the work, proven by time and several times transformed, he had to go by the science,» explained Mathieu Deldicque, with the detail of the tests performed, such as studies under the microscope, using ultraviolet or réflectographie infrared.

The drawing, done in charcoal and highlights of white lead, is a young woman of androgynous wearing the antique, framed similarly to a mid-body, arms, male but the breasts, round and bare. Observing the viewer with an air of cheeky, and it outlines a slight smile and pose in the manner of the famous Mona Lisa of the Louvre museum.

Chambord and on the banks of the Loire Vinci died may 2, 1519, at age 67, the château du Clos Lucé in Amboise. ALAIN JOCARD/AFP

The château du Clos Lucé, last residence of Leonardo da Vinci, the royal castle of Amboise, and the whole of the region Centre-Val de Loire will celebrate widely the Italian genius. Exhibitions, concerts a tribute, a show depicting the life of the artist, symposia… of the hundreds of events are planned.

An exhibition at the château de Chambord, including Utopia in the works , placed under the double office of the architect Dominique Perrault and the philosopher Roland Schaer, show the involvement of Leonardo da Vinci in his development, through 150 works, including the three folios in the Codex Atlanticus loaned by the Biblioteca Ambrosiana of Milan.

in The Louvre, on the background of the negotiations with Italy

From 24 October to February 24, 2020, the Louvre will be the last of the museums and palaces in homage to Leonardo da Vinci. His exhibition will focus on the Vinci a painter. This will be the climax of the 500th anniversary of the death of the genius born in Tuscany. But uncertainty remains over the presence of several masterpieces of Italian museums, the populist government of the Peninsula a major splash among watch to these loans, susceptibility to cultural.

To ease tensions, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has launched at the beginning of march at the Italian television a stirring appeal for reconciliation between France and Italy by announcing that his counterpart Sergio Mattarella will come celebrate spring at Amboise in Touraine, the 500 years of the death of Leonardo da Vinci.

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Finally, the anniversary of the death of the florentine master was accompanied by the publication of a variety of books, addressing different facets of the universal genius who was at once artist, engineer, scientist, inventor, musician…..

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