A man in Milan

Who would you say was the most significant figure of the second millennium? Many personalities come to mind, but Leonardo da Vinci must be a prime candidate. “A man who woke up too soon in the darkness while other men still slept,” said Sigmund Freud, and in fact the world wasn’t ready for him. His ideas for aircraft, helicopter, parachute, tank and bicycle, amongst many others, remained hidden in his notes while civilization tried to catch up.

Leonardo was born in 1458 in Vinci, near Florence, and lived in a number of Italian cities, spending his final years in France. He knew what he was worth. In a letter to the Duke of Milan he extolled his skills and virtues, securing a position at Lodovico’s court that would enable him to work relatively undisturbed for the twenty most productive years of his life. “The Florentine Master in Milan,” as he described himself, painted portraits, religious scenes including the Virgin of the Rocks and the Last Supper, and frescoes inside the Castle. His engineering work comprised the city’s drainage system (involving the use of the newly-invented hydraulic pump) and the base of the Cathedral dome. A relatively unfamiliar work is the “Sala delle Asse” in the Castle, 1498, a complex and beautiful fresco featuring the flower-laden branches of sixteen trees, entwined with a long golden cord. He worked on the city’s defences, and invented, or perfected, a wheel-lock for muskets.

All the while, he was writing and drawing on countless sheets of paper. These were not simply fine arts studies. The pages that have survived express the amazing breadth of his thought, with intricate scientific drawings ranging from designs for flying machines to anatomical investigations such as the bones in the human arm and a foetus in the mother’s uterus. The drawings give a fascinating insight into scientific discovery at one of the most important points in European cultural history. Leonardo even seems to have conceptualized the idea of solar power, the calculator, and a basic theory of plate tectonics. He intended to reorganize the massive amount of thought and research into a series of books, but unfortunately never got around to it, leaving the task to his followers. They failed him dismally.

Today, the drawings are scattered around the globe in the form of Codices, bound volumes. The largest of these, Codex Atlanticus, is owned by the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, and this institution has recently begun a cycle of exhibitions in which a number of original sheets are placed on display. From 8 June to 5 September 2010, the exhibition “Leonardo – Politics and Allegory” will be held in two locations, the Sacrestia del Bramante at Santa Maria delle Grazie, Via Caradosso 1, and the Federiciana della Veneranda Hall at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana (Piazza Pio XI, 2).

The Ambrosiana section of the show, staged with a contribution from the Cardinale Federico Borromeo Foundation, presents a few pages from the Codex Atlanticus. These show that Leonardo was comparatively cosmopolitan, far from indifferent to his human condition. Visitors see traces of his ideology, and his concept of liberty as a central value in politics and anthropology, “the greatest gift of nature,” as he wrote, reflecting the new stance of Italian Humanism.

The city of Milan is gradually beginning to highlight the master’s heritage. In its status as “city of art and science,” it is promoting some of Leonardo’s greatest masterpieces this summer. For the first time, it is possible to purchase a single, all-inclusive ticket for the Ambrosiana Art Gallery (which also possesses the “Portrait of a Musician”), the Sacrestia del Bramante and the Last Supper. There are a number of “Da Vinci itineraries” in Milan, visiting all the most important places related to the artist, such as the Castello Sforzesco, depicted by Leonardo in many of his sketches, the Church of San Maurizio (Monastero Maggiore) with its 2,500 square metres of fine frescoes by some of Leonardo’s apprentices, and Leonardo’s Vineyard, given to him by Duke Lodovico Sforza. The canals or “Navigli” reflect the artist’s ideas on creating a water-borne transport system for the city. At the Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia, there are models of some of his machines.

More information on da Vinci’s legacy in Milan is available on the Milan Tourist Information website, www.turismo.milano.it Group visits can be booked by emailing prenotazione.visite@ambrosiana.it, and the combined tickets can be purchased from the ticket agency Charta (charta.it)

Alexandra Baxter

Néo News