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Leonardo da Vinci – A Mind in Motion

“Motion is the cause of all life”

This exhibition at the British Library explores the major role Leonardo ascribed to motion in his quest to understand the natural world. It looks particularly at his life-long study of water, which he believed to be driving force of nature.

To mark the 500th anniversary of Leonardo‘s death, selected sheets from three remarkable notebooks, the Codex Arundel, Codex Forster and Codex Leicester, which all once belonged to British private collectors, are displayed together for the first time in the UK. These reveal Leonardo as an extraordinary dynamic thinker, who made connections between multiple disciplines and whose vision of the natural world constantly evolved. They also show Leonardo’s study of natural phenomena enabled him to recreate nature in his work as an artist and an inventor.

Through pages of Leonardo’s handwritten notes, drawings and diagrams, the inner workings of his complex mind and his fascination with motion, which Leonardo considered to be ‘the cause of all life’, are explored. For the first time in the UK, the exhibition displays highlights from one of the British Library’s finest treasures, the Codex Arundel, alongside the Codex Forster from the V&A and a selection of sheets from the Codex Leicester. Widely considered to be one of Leonardo’s most important scientific notebooks, the Codex Leicester will be shown in this country for the first time since it was purchased by Bill Gates.

See Leonardo’s mirror handwriting up close, marvel at his detailed studies of natural phenomena, especially water, admire his intricate drawings of such things as an underwater breathing apparatus, and study his observations on subjects as varied as the formation of waves and air bubbles, river flow, the velocity of wind, and the nature of light and shadow.

As your journey through the exhibition concludes, studies for Leonardo’s famous painting, the Virgin of the Rocks, reveal how his observations of nature in motion directly informed his ability to portray human movement in the artistic masterpieces for which he is known today.

Scientist. Inventor. Artist. Gain an insight into the workings of Leonardo’s enquiring mind and follow his tireless pursuit of knowledge at Leonardo da Vinci: A Mind in Motion.

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  • Organizzato da: British Library
  • In collaborazione con: The Italian Cultural Institute London