Bloomfield Museum in Jerusalem celebrates Leonardo's 500th anniversary

Italian Renaissance icon Leonardo Da Vinci was a visionary man, an artist, a scientist. The year 2019 marks the 500th anniversary of his death.

JULY 8, 2019 00:58

‘LEONARDO DA VINCI: 500 The First Start-Up Man.’ (photo credit: NOAM MORANO) — ‘LEONARDO DA VINCI: 500 The First Start-Up Man.’

(photo credit: NOAM MORANO)

Italian Renaissance icon Leonardo Da Vinci was a visionary man, an artist, a scientist. The year 2019 marks the 500th anniversary of his death. To celebrate his figure, the Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem has devoted an exhibition to one of Leonardo's essential traits, his insatiable curiosity.

The exhibition, called "Leonard's Questions," and curated by Damon Schusterman and Amir Ben Shalom, was inaugurated on Friday.

According to a statement by the museum, it features more than 40 different installations and displays, many of which are interactive and invite visitors to ask questions, to experiment, and to "step into Leonardo's shoes," on several topics.

Wonderful opening of the «Leonardo’s Questions» exhibition at the Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem. The great installations lead the visitors to reflect on the fundamentals of Leonardo’s thought: the constant search not just for answers, but most of all for new questions. pic.twitter.com/otXNyOKgLh
— Italy in Israel (@ItalyinIsrael) July 7, 2019

Anatomy and the human body, botany and geology, flight, mechanics, optics and drawing are among the areas covered by the exhibit, whose curators describe as appealing to all ages.

For instance, in the "Optics and Observation" area, a large "Camera Obscura" (dark chamber), allows visitors to discover the connection between Leonardo's research and the works of Rabbi Levi Ben Gershon (RaLBaG) (1288-1344) and of the Muslim scholar Ibn al- Haytham (965- 1040).

Moreover, several Israeli artists present their Leonardo-inspired artwork: among others, Itamar Mendes Flor created a giant glider employing only tools and materials from the Renaissance, while Guy Hadani performs an acrobatic show accompanied by an original soundtrack by the composer and musician Shlomi Shaban.

Numerous workshops and performances are also offered daily.

The exhibition has been organized in cooperation with the Italian Embassy and the Italian Institute of Culture in Tel Aviv.

"In Leonardo's work the separation between science and art, as we're used to perceiving it, is torn down: Engineering and painting are different expressions of the same experience of the world," Italian Ambassador to Israel Gianluigi Benedetti said speaking at the inauguration of the exhibition.

"In this perceiving, the Man as a whole, in this absence of separation between different fields of knowledge, lies the modernity of his work and of his teaching, after 500 years," he added.