MELBOURNE - More than 3000 square metres and the height of a four-storey house is the space given to the exhibition Leonardo da Vinci – 500 years of genius at The Lume.

A genius who for more than 500 years has continued to amaze posterity with his works and inventions that influenced fields from architecture to engineering, medicine to art, town planning to aviation and even the military.

From March 16 there will be 150 projectors ready to cover the 11-metre-high walls, immersing visitors as they discover more about the greatest and most prolific artist of all time.

Visitors will embark on a journey passing through engineering machinery and urban planning projects to The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.

A journey where the ultimate goal is to ignite curiosity in the visitor, as explained by the Melbourne museum’s two artistic directors and exhibition managers, Josh Cameron and Andrew Montague.

The idea for this exhibition came from The Lume and Grande Experiences founder Bruce Peterson’s love of Italian art and culture. Peterson lived in Italy with his family for a year, where he built what is still, sixteen years later, one of the largest and most detailed archives of the Italian master’s work.

In 2013, Peterson acquired the Leonardo da Vinci Museum, operating in Rome’s Piazza del Popolo, inside the crypt of Santa Maria.

The Leonardo exhibition at The Lume was entrusted to Cameron and Montague with the challenge of making the artist relevant in 2024 to as wide an audience as possible.

“It’s a timeless exhibition. Everything Leonardo did is still significant,” says Montague.

“[His work] still has a great impact today in the artistic and cultural spheres.

“Leonardo was a true genius, but we’re also fascinated by his humanity.

“His curiosity and thirst for knowledge are the most important legacy he left us.”

“There’s so much to learn about this great artist and scientist,” assures Cameron.

“Those who visit the exhibition will understand how much passion and curiosity accompanied him throughout his life.

“The idea was to present the works in an engaging way for the public, by immersing them in the landscapes and cities beautifully painted by Leonardo.

“We take visitors on an emotional journey through the works.”

 

Because visitors will have direct contact with the art, it will be a very different experience to what one normally has in a traditional museum, where paintings must be observed from behind red velvet rope.

“For some paintings, we’ve chosen to focus on certain details [by using technology to highlight them to the audience],” explains Cameron.

“Often when looking at a painting live, one only dwells on the faces and misses the wonderful details that one does not notice.”

For Cameron, the use of technology to assist with the experience is “our way of guiding the visitor to discover Leonardo, because we are not in front of a book”.

The exhibition will be interesting and memorable for everyone, including children who will especially enjoy the projections on the ground.

Leonardo was obsessed with the pursuit of flight, so much so that he even wrote the Codex on the Flight of Birds, a summary of the many hours he spent observing their wing movements and the way birds use the wind and currents to stay in the air.

At The Lume it will be possible to experience the thrill of flight, thanks to virtual reality goggles and a machine that simulates the feeling of being in the air.

Despite this, real experiences are still fundamental says Montague.

“Not everything can be captured on a screen,” he warns.

“We have built working machines and inventions that have never been reproduced and that you will be able to touch and explore up close.”

Visitors will also be invited to draw their own masterpieces and discover the part of the exhibit dedicated to Mona Lisa herself.