The National Gallery in London is set to open a new exhibition that brings some of the most famous works of da Vinci together under one roof.
Once opened, Leonardo da Vinci: Painter Of The Court Of Milan will be the “most complete display of Leonardo da Vinci’s rare surviving paintings ever held,” and will bring together both famous and lesser-known works, borrowing from some of the most prestigious galleries in the world.
The hotly-anticipated collection took more than 5 years of careful planning and organisation to bring together – and art institutions from all over the world were persuaded to lend their pieces to the project.
“We started thinking about this five years ago, when we were beginning to plan the restoration of the Virgin Of The Rocks, so an exhibition to celebrate that project seemed like the right thing to do,” said Curator Luke Syson.
“I realised that although there’d been great exhibitions of Leonardo’s drawings in the past – there hadn’t been one that focussed specifically on his career as a painter.”
Although some of his most famous paintings – the Mona Lisa, for example – won’t be included in the display, curators at the museum have managed to compile works that have never been considered side-by-side, hoping this will help visitors appreciate the work in a new way.
“In a way, it was a limited shopping list because Leonardo painted extraordinarily little, and even less survives,” Syson said.
“And of those pictures, it was clear that some would never be lent, whatever happened – I mean, the Mona Lisa was never going to leave Paris even if we wanted it to. Nobody’s going to scrape The Last Supper off the walls.”
Leonardo da Vinci: Painter Of The Court Of Milan opens on 9 November at the National Gallery and continues through February.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15466904
