Da Vinci Da Spokane

On a recent trip to Spokane, my family and I visited the traveling Leonardo da Vinci exhibit at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture.  Leonardo da Vinci: Man - Inventor - Genius features wooden models of da Vinci’s inventions, replicas of his paintings (including the Mona Lisa), and lots of fantastic interactive ways to learn about one of the original Renaissance men.

The panels at each model listed information in both English and Italian, so my sister and I got to fit in a little language quiz while reading about da Vinci’s military, civil, hydraulic, and flight inventions.

The reproductions of da Vinci’s artworks included a display of the fascinating cartoon for The Battle of Anghiari.  The “Lost Leonardo” fresco is thought to be covered up deep within the plaster of the walls of the Sala dei Cinquecento in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio.

I tried my hand at da Vinci’s perspectograph, a tool used to correctly sketch linear perspective.  With your subject in front of you, you peer through a hole and trace what you see onto a pane of glass.  The figures in The Last Supper are transferred accurately and proportionately onto the glass.

The exhibit will be at the MAC until September.  It is a very approachable way to bring Italian Renaissance art history to the public.  In addition to the models and art reproductions, several museum volunteers gave presentations on subjects such as The Vitruvian Man, tempera versus oil paints, and da Vinci’s journals.  I imagine it’s a huge hit with school groups…there are five galleries filled with hands-on examples of da Vinci’s creativity.  It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re heading to Spokane!