- Researchers have discovered the hidden laboratory used
by Leonardo da Vinci for studies of flight and other pioneering scientific
work in previously sealed rooms at a monastery next to the Basilica of
the Santissima Annunziata, in the heart of Florence.
-
- The workshop rooms, located between the Institute for
Military Geography and the Basilica, contain frescos painted by Leonardo
that have "impressive resemblances" to other examples of his
experimental work. The frescos include a triptych of birds circling above
a subsequently erased representation of the Virgin Mary that "constitutes
a clear citation of the studies by the maestro on the flight of birds",
the three researchers, Alessandro del Meglio, Roberto Manneschalchi and
Maria Carchio, said yesterday.
-
- An angel at the side of the fresco scene bears a striking
resemblance to the angel in a painting of the annunciation attributed to
Leonardo in the Uffizi Gallery, they added.
-
- Leonardo's use of the rooms was referred to in letters
written by Pietro di Novellara to Isabella D'Este and they were cited by
Giorgio Vasari in his 16th-century biography, Lives of the Artists, they
said.
-
- "The finds are particularly interesting as they
will help us to understand the context in which Leonardo was working in
these rooms exactly 500 years ago," said Professor Alessandro Vezzosi,
a Leonardo scholar.
-
- The Tuscan-born scientist, painter, philosopher and poet
was aged 51 when he returned to Florence in 1503 after many years in Milan,
where he already had established his reputation, and a period of extended
travel. (His first spell in Florence came when he was 17 and became a member
of the painters' guild). The rooms he took in the 16th century were in
a religious house run by monks from the order of the Servi di Maria - the
Servants of Mary - in a part of the monastery set aside for renting to
lay people as guestrooms.
-
- Other notable figures who would take accommodation in
the same monastery later included Andrea del Sarto and Franciabigio. Leonardo's
second sojourn in Florence would last three years, during which his popularity
grew dramatically and he painted classics such as the Mona Lisa.
-
- Part of Leonardo's suite was walled-in after stables
were built on an adjoining lot. Also discovered recently by the researchers
was a previously unknown staircase dating back to 1430, which they believe
was the work of the Florentine sculptor and architect Michelozzo di Bartolommeo.
They also found paintings in a second-floor room, which they think are
the work of the artist Morto da Feltre, who Vasari said was drawn to the
monastery by the presence of Leonardo.
-
- The discovery coincides with the opening in Rome yesterday
of another major exhibit of 70 tables from Leonardo's Codex Atalanticus
incorporating his visions of flying and other machines at Rome's Lincei
Academy. "This will be the only chance many people ever get to see
the Codex," said the exhibition's curator, Carlo Barbieri.
-
- The tables on display are from the so-called Hoepli version
of the Codex. Academics spent 15 years copying a reproduction of the original
that was published in 1904 by the Hoepli publishing house. The exhibition
displays Leonardo's designs next to working models of both his machines
and modern machines. There are models of Leonardo's bicycle, his flying
machine and his "car", driven by spiral springs contained within
drums beneath the wagon, similar to a wind-up toy.
-
- Academics believe the "car" was created for
the entertainment of nobles at a Renaissance celebration, possibly for
use as a kind of mobile stand for a theatrical prop.
-
- Excitement over the Leonardo discoveries was marred by
an announcement from the director of the Uffizi, Annamaria Petrioli Tofani,
that she was leaving Italy to work in the United States and at the Hermitage
gallery in Russia. She is leaving after 41 years at the Uffizi because
authorities refused her request to postpone her retirement until the age
of 70.
-
- ©2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.
-
- http://news.independent.co.uk
|
