BurJuman presents The Middle Eastern Debut of the Da Vinci Exhibition

The internationally acclaimed Da Vinci Exhibition is set to bring an amazing collection of inventions, manuscripts and art by Italian Renaissance genius Leonardo Da Vinci to Dubai – the only Middle Eastern stop on the travelling exhibition’s circuit.

Held in collaboration with the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum in Florence, the exhibition will be held at BurJuman from November 6 – December 5 and will present and display five themes: War Machines, Flying Machines, Nautical & Hydraulic Inventions, Principles of Mechanics and Artwork (Reproductions).

The interactive collection has travelled across the world, showing in major cities including Florence, Siena, Venice, Naples, Warsaw, Madrid, Berlin, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Canberra, Auckland, Taipei, Macao, Vienna, California, Texas, Montreal, Chicago, Detroit, Hollywood, St Louis and now Dubai. This is the first time the region will welcome such an extensive collection of Da Vinci’s work that range from his more famous artistic creations to his lesser known but equally groundbreaking engineering inventions.

Born in Tuscan town of Vinci in 1452, Leonardo da Vinci was one of the great masters of the High Renaissance, who was also celebrated as a painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and scientist. His profound love of knowledge and research was the keynote of both his artistic and scientific endeavours. His innovations in the field of painting influenced the course of Italian art for more than a century after his death, and his scientific studies—particularly in the fields of technology, flight, optics, and hydraulics—anticipated many of the developments of modern science.

The month-long exhibition will offer visitors the unique opportunity to view and interact with an excess of 60 machines created from original da Vinci drawings, including flying machines, nautical, hydraulic and architectural innovations, applications of civil engineering and inventive war machines. The interactive machines – many of which are scale models and some are life size – are a popular aspect of the Da Vinci Exhibition as visitors can touch and handle these models to gain a first-hand appreciation of how they work. Explanatory notes and illustrative panels with Leonardo’s drawings will accompany each model.

The machines displayed in the Da Vinci Exhibition have been constructed over a number of years by the team of Florentine artisans from the Niccolai Teknoart SNC (Firenze) group. The artisans have crafted the machines with the greatest attention to detail, using only materials of the period – wood, cotton, brass, iron and cord.  Computers were used to calculate the exact scale and proportion of each model and finally, a great deal of skill has been involved in identifying the secret clues, decoys and encryptions planted by Leonardo to avoid others copying his ideas.

The exhibition will also include 15 high quality reproduction artworks of some of his most famous paintings including the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, giant art panels, computer animations, film screenings and rare copies of Leonardo da Vinci Codices.

The Codices are rare limited edition collections that reproduce the surviving manuscripts of Leonardo’s notes. Leonardo kept a detailed record of his life, thoughts and inventions – written in left-handed mirror writing – partly because it prevented the smudging of ink as he was left-handed and partly because the use of a mirror to read the notes made it more difficult for others to copy his ideas.

“The extensive collection of da Vinci’s machines, technical drawings, notes and art is set to give visitors the rare opportunity to gain an in-depth look at the workings of the mind of one of the most inventive geniuses ever to have lived. BurJuman is proud to bring this inspirational exhibition to the people of Dubai and add to the city’s knowledge and appreciation of creative expression and true innovation,” says Sabina Khandwani, Head of Marketing and PR at BurJuman.