Attached Link: http://start.earthlink.net/newsarticle?cat=3&aid=D7QPS7FG0_story

Here are some quotes from an article about an upcoming da Vinci exhibit... that I wish I could see in person. :deep sigh: However, the hope of a CD afterwards will sustain me. (At least one of the Poser artists is striving for this "leonardoesque look", so it isn't off-topic.) See link for complete article and picture. ***************************** Digital Technology Used On da Vinci Works ... Using digital technology, the Louvre Museum in Paris, is making da Vinci accessible as never before, photographing 12 of his notebooks - which have not been exhibited together for 50 years - so visitors can flip through them with the click of a mouse. The effect is breathtaking - like touring the great genius' mind. Normally kept in a bank vault, each yellowing sheet testifies to the insatiable curiosity of the artist, architect, engineer, inventor, theorist, scientist and musician some describe as the ultimate embodiment of a universal man. Notebooks were da Vinci's companions in life, carried around in his pockets and whipped out to sketch what he saw and to jot down his thoughts, said organizers of the exhibition that opens next Friday and runs to July 14. Mere words cannot describe the breadth of subjects da Vinci covered. But random flicks through the pages turn up, for instance, the divine painting of cherries and peas, sketches of churches, animals, trees and people, plans for a flying machine, studies on bird flight and the flow of water, theories on painting, notes on shadow and light, a list of purchases for friends - the mundane to the sublime. "It's like a stream of consciousness," said Varena Forcione, an exhibition director. "It is his mind poured onto paper. It's extraordinary." Just 28 of da Vinci's notebooks survive today, out of at least 50 that his pupil Francesco Melzi is thought to have put together, Forcione said. The 12 in France were stolen by soldiers in 1796. Labeled A through L, they were last exhibited together in 1952 at the Louvre and are kept in a vault at the Bank of France, the central bank. "Their value is inestimable," Forcione said. ... In the notebooks, da Vinci appears to switch effortlessly between writing and drawing; both are parts of his language. There are also notes about contemporary events, like the death of a French king, and occasional insights into his day-to-day life. ... In manuscript A, da Vinci argues that artists should work alone. Trying to paint with companions in the studio does not work because "one cannot serve two masters, you will not succeed in being good company and succeed even less in pursuing your reflections on art," he wrote. Some notebooks are pocket-sized, barely bigger than a cigarette packet. Others are larger, roughly magazine size. Notebook A is bound in white leather and held shut with blue string. ... Some 1,080 pages were photographed digitally, work that took six weeks, Forcione said. Visitors can flip through the notebooks on six computer screens and click the mouse to zoom in on details. The 12 originals are displayed open in glass boxes at the exhibition, which also includes 85 da Vinci drawings and 47 works by his pupils and other artists. Previously, the only way to see copies of all 12 manuscripts was in a book by a Florence, Italy, publishing house. It costs about $11,000 and is generally found only in specialized libraries, Forcione said. The Louvre says it is exploring the possibility of publishing the virtual notebooks on CD-ROM after the exhibition.

Thank you for posting this, Carolly. I would love to see the exhibit, too. I hope that they will really make that CD! Many years ago I read a book which compiled and translated some of his notebooks and it was fascinating.

Thank you, Carolly! I agree with Sue, this CD would give a great insight into a really "beautiful mind". Willy

I've lived in italy for the last 20 years, and when I lived in milan I was able to go and see Da Vinci's 'The Last Supper' fairly frequently. Incredible sight, 'in the flesh', as it were. One of my first jobs was assistant to a photographer who was working on a book of italian architecture. We travelled round italy for a year photographing monuments, churches, etc. Everything from the prehistoric grottoes at San Remo, with their primitive paintings, to the 'House of Glass' in Como, commisioned by Mussolini. So I got a paid, guided tour of italian archtecture! Funnily enough, I've just finished doing a search on the net for images of one of the things I saw at the time and never forgot; Michelangelo's 'invading' staircase for the Laurentian Libarary in Florence. It 'flows' into the room like lava. Absolutely amazing! I wanted to make an 'invading' staircase for poser and thought that would be a good start. Might as well learn from the masters. LOL. mac PS The italians are terrible at a lot of things (music, for example), but you can't beat them for design and style. I have a collection of about 60 italian coffee-pots. The variety and elegance of such a simple object is endless.

oh I want to GO! I didn't realize this exhibit was so soon, I actually have been reading about the exhibit and the photographing of the pages, it's gunna be a doozie. I'm such a huge da Vinci fan. I just got done reading a book by Dan Brown called The da Vinci Code, murder mystery thriller. Very fun, highly recommend it. sigh when I win the lotto I guess.

On topic for me as well Carolly. I learned many things from studying da Vinci . Bought a BIG book of his works that included drawing and what nots. Interesting side note most painters stole his work and pagurised the heck out of him . Seems they had one hell of a time drawing hands back then and coveted his hand scetches. If you know what to look for you can see his work copyed by allot of the great and not so great masters back then. Kind of like what happens here allot .

The CD would be even better than the museum catalog because you would get to see all the pages, not just what the curator liked. (The curators want to please the public, whereas we need references of everything... even the less glamorous sketches.) Da Vinci knew how to hint at motion and depth when he was presenting a 3D world in 2 dimensions, and that is Something we Poser artists need to understand as well. studying the books leaisurely would help, especially since museum-goers usually can't linger more than a few minutes at each work. I appreciate the non-blockbuster exhibits at the smaller museums because I can just stand there, like maclean, in awe. (I'm so jealous... a paid year-long guided tour of Italy's treasures?) It is hard to guide the mouse with crossed fingers, so I'll cross my toes while waiting for the CD. (If they have already done the painstakingly hard work of digitizing the sheets, they might as well sell the results to an eager audience.) The exhibit has the advantage of secondary materials: the other drawings probably show how the sketches were developed and used in composition. Dratskies... ooh, to be wealthy and travel to such shows! Carolly

Yes, you're right about the differences between a CD and a museum exhibit. A couple of years ago we had a Michelangelo exhibit at the local museum and it was packed. You had to wait your turn to get close enough to see the drawings and then you couldn't just linger for a long time, since others wanted to see them, too. Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo are two of my all-time favorites.

Sue, Many years ago, the J Paul Getty had the drawings of Hans Holbein the Elder (his sitters included most of the court of Henry VIII and a lot of wealthy burghers and other folk who caught his eye). It was hard not to put nose-prints on the glass (that museum doesn't rely on ropes to keep people at bay, just courtesy) and I could linger. Those drawings were so fresh and lively and the communication between artist and sitter was immediate. Can you imagine being a maybe a yard away from Anne Boleyn and sketching her? Another show I enjoyed tremendously was the Scythian Exhibit down in LA. Most people didn't know what was there, and the rooms were empty enough for contemplation. I stood in front of that pectoral of horses and griffins for almost 20 minutes without a guard raising so much as an eyebrow. :sigh: The Tutankhamon show (LA) and the Smithsonian collection (SF) were terrible... rushed through like cattle after driving all night? And you couldn't even think of going back to check something! Where's the sense of connection if you can't verify a correspondence? I heard that Chicago had treated the Tutankhamon show differently: instead of cattle lines they made rooms within rooms like entering the sepulchre. I will have to add that I was impressed with SF's coverage of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Israel only allowed 12 small fragments to come over, and they were kept very dark for preservation's sake. It ought to have been disappointing. However, the museum took the stories told on each fragment and had other works telling those stories nearby: medieval tapestries, manuscripts, a Book of Hours, and one room with a very large model of the Temple in the middle. There was a room with archeological finds (oil lamps and a decorated chest stick in my mind) and maps showing the site. They filled 3 rooms with enough space to allow people to breathe and enough objects to satisfy the senses. I want the pictures to examine at my leisure, but even a poorly designed exhibit brings us closer to the mind of the artist... scale and texture just don't print very well. Carolly