Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci

The Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci is located in Vinci, Leonardo's birthplace, in the province of Florence.

History

Founded by scholars and artists as the first museum on the complexity of Leonardo Da Vinci artist, scientist, inventor and designer in relation to his biography, his territories and his modernity. It has been realizing in practice the theories of the Imaginary Museum. It developed the content of exhibitions such as "Leonardo. Art, science and utopia" ( Toronto 1987) "Leonardo disappeared and found" (Florence, 1988) and "Leonardo. News and myth" (Rome, 1989, Budapest, 1991) and the first cd- rom" Leonardo. The digital painting" (ACTA, 1989). Opened on October 2, 1993 under the patronage of Regione Toscana, Provincia di Firenze, APT and Municipality of Vinci, with the auspices of the Armand Hammer Center for Leonardo Studies (University of California at Los Angeles) and the auspices of the Ente Raccolta Vinciana of Milan. It was officially recognized as Museum of Public Interest by Regione Toscana in 1999. Its Director is Alessandro Vezzosi, President of the International Association is Agnese Sabato, Honorary President is Carlo Pedretti.

Guidelines

The Museo Ideale Leonardo Da Vinci, for its role as a site of research, philological discovery and creativity, pursues, among others, three major objectives: - to spread the knowledge of a true Leonardo, beyond the stereotypes, rhetoric and legend; - investigate and present the "lost" Leonardo and report the results of new studies and interpretations, also concerning his school (from the Achademia Leonardi Vinci to Leonardo's followers); - a new reading of his work with regards to both the Renaissance context and contemporary culture.

Location

It is located in the Gallery that - with the Ancient Cellar of the Castle - housed a forerunner "Wine Museum" already in the 19th century. This is recorded by Giuseppe Garibaldi's memories dated July- August 1868, where it is called "Museum Masetti" because it was part of the ownership of the counts Masetti da Bagnano, together with the castle of the Counts Guidi (later donated to the town of Vinci) and the land called Grappa (in the past owned by Leonardo's father and now location of "Garden of Leonardo"). Just opposite the Museum entrance there was the City Mill (with its millpond) that from 1478 was run by Leonardo's father Ser Piero and his uncle Francesco. Leonardo himself was present at the deed: he should have restored the mill and he would have been the beneficial owner. The part dating from nineteenth century was built on the basement of the millpond owned by the City and by the Da Vinci. The exhibition areas are temporarily closed due to rain water infiltration from the overlying building, awaiting re-opening.

Collections

Started in 1972 as a collection in progress of different, ancient and modern materials, (concerning Leonardo, ethno-anthropological territory of Vinci and contemporary art in relation to Leonardo), designed to create sets of artworks, artifacts and documentary materials. The collection includes original ancient paintings from the school of Leonardo, tools and instruments of his time and of his native land (such as "Ritrecine of Leonardo"), rare engravings (including "Knots" dating 1506-8 by Dürer after Leonardo's drawing); models based on his projects; memorabilia concerning Leonardo, two works autographed by Duchamp and thousands of artifacts and works-in-progress) and the "Dome of Arts and Ideas" by Buckminster Fuller inspired by Leonardo.

Archives

The Leonardeschi

The Museo Ideale started in 1993 (referring to the exhibition in 1983 "Leonardo and the Leonardism in Naples and Rome" in the Capodimonte Museum and Palazzo Barberini) the research and cataloging of the works by Leonardo's collaborators, students and followers, highlighting the characters of his studio and the extension of his school in various Italian regions and European countries. The aim is to introduce and compare a growing number of works and Leonardeschi artists, also with the acquisition of scientific tests and iconographic repertoires, to check attributions and new hypotheses.

The Leonardism

It aims to collect all the quotes, derivations, the uses and misuses of images of Leonardo, from art to the mass media, from the 16th century to the present. It consists of a collection in progress (started in 1972), which includes thousands of original artworks and artifacts, reproductions and documentary materials from all over the world (from the ancient engravings to Marcel Duchamp, ex-libris and philately, memorabilia from the nineteenth-century cinema and advertising ...).

Leonardo's Fingerprints

From an intuition of its Director Alessandro Vezzosi in 1978 -following the discovery of fingerprints in Leonardo's paintings and manuscripts -the Museo Ideale has been working since 2000 systematically to the research of Leonardo's fingerprints (research which is far from being to its conclusion over, and sometimes misunderstood and subject to falsification.) In collaboration and with the interdisciplinary advice of institutes of scientific investigations, it aims to identify and reconstruct Leonardo's fingerprints and to contribute to anthropological knowledge of the artist and his works, often performed with the use of fingers and not only of the brush.

Museo Ideale of the Renaissance

It has started its external activities curating exhibitions, publications and work in progress, from "Raphael and the idea of beauty" and "Raphael lives" (Rome 2001), "The School of the World: Leonardo and Michelangelo" (Vinci 2004) "Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael" (Gothenburg 2011 and Istanbul 2012), and the books "Raffaello universale" (2010), "Michelangelo assoluto" (2012).

The Garden of Leonardo and Utopia

The creation of the "Garden of Leonardo and Utopia", just outside Vinci, as outdoor section of the Museo Ideale, has started the project of the "Village of creativity" and the theme park "Center of art-nature - science for the Tuscany of Leonardo" The "Labyrinth of Leonardo" has been reconstructed for the first time from the Museo Ideale in 1997 as an artwork based on drawings by Leonardo: the first was designed among sunflowers, then the labyrinth was created with 1,500 trees of "vinci" (purple willow), forming a path 740 meter long with a diameter of 60 meters. "The path of different trees and flowers" (1999) reinvents, with its spiral shape continuously growing, the idea of the "Avenue" by Bruno Munari: the first plant is the laurel of the President Azeglio Ciampi, followed from those chosen by artists, scientists, poets, authorities and "Friends of the Museum". The "Endless knot" (2007) draws on the land with 1,200 plants of "gioconde roses" the knot inspired by the decoration on the dress of Leonardo's Mona Lisa. The garden is not open at the moment, awaiting for the reopening of the Museum.

Activities

Among its multimedia editions: "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. It curates also publications and travelling exhibitions in Italy and abroad, conferences, educational projects for schools, work in progress with artists, researches 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")... Among its projects, that to take back to Italy the Codex Hammer/Leicester (then bought by Bill Gates) and the Tavola Doria. Among its external exhibitions: "Leonardo's bridges" (Malmö and Stockholm, 1993, with the Lady with an Ermine); "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, Naples, Rome, Biel-Bienne, 2000-2001); "Léonard. L'artist de la science" (Strasburg, 2002); "Leonardo. I giochi e lo sport" (Athens, 2004; Florence, 2005); "Leonardo and the Codex Leicester" (Tokyo, 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, 2010); "Leonardo a Piombino" (2011); "La Gioconda è nuda" (Brindisi, 2011); "Mona Lisa Unveiled" (Miami, 2011); "Leonardo and the idea of beauty" (Shizuoka, Fukuoka, Tokyo, with the Scapiliata, 2011-2012); "The great masters. Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo" (Istanbul, 2012); "Leonardo-Mona Lisa-The Myths" (Kaohsiung, 2013; Taipei 2013-2014).

Bibliography

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