Weekender: Leonardo da Vinci works to be exhibited in Birmingham
To mark the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, 12 of the Renaissance master’s drawings are to go on display in Birmingham.
The drawings, from the Royal Collection, are to be displayed at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, as part of 12 simultaneous exhibitions across the UK next February (2019).
Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing, will give the widest-ever UK audience the opportunity to see the work of this extraordinary artist, with 144 of his greatest drawings from the Royal Collection forming the dozen exhibitions.
Twelve drawings, selected to reflect the full range of Leonardo’s interests – painting, sculpture, architecture, music, anatomy, engineering, cartography, geology and botany – will be shown at each venue in Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Southampton and Sunderland, with a further venue to be announced.
As the only venue in the Midlands, visitors to Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery (BMAG) will see the intricacy of Leonardo’s work through 12 works never seen in the city before.
Drawings on display will include the Head of an Old Bearded Man (c.1517-18), (see below) and A Map of the Valdichiana (c.1503-4).
Revered in his day as a painter, Leonardo completed only around 20 paintings; he was respected as a sculptor and architect, but no sculpture or buildings by him survive; he was a military and civil engineer who plotted with Machiavelli to divert the river Arno, but the scheme was never executed; he was an anatomist and dissected 30 human corpses, but his ground-breaking anatomical work was never published; he planned treatises on painting, water, mechanics, the growth of plants and many other subjects, but none was ever finished. As so much of his life’s work was unrealised or destroyed, Leonardo’s greatest achievements are to be found on sheets of paper.
The drawings in the Royal Collection have been together as a group since the artist’s death and provide an unparalleled insight into his investigations and the workings of his mind.
The artist firmly believed that visual evidence was more persuasive than academic argument, for an image conveyed knowledge more accurately and concisely than any words. Few of his surviving drawings were intended for others to see: drawing served as his laboratory, allowing him to work out his ideas on paper and search for the universal laws that he believed underpinned all of creation.
The exhibition in Birmingham will be accompanied by an engaging education programme which will help to bring Leonardo’s techniques alive for visitors, along with a series of talks and tours.
Gurminder Kenth, Museum Manager at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, said: “We are thrilled to be part of the Leonardo 500th anniversary celebrations showcasing the extraordinary talent and skill of one of the world’s greatest artists.
“When a selection of Leonardo drawings were on display here at the museum in 2012, it was an extremely popular exhibition, with queues forming for the chance to see the works up close. With a different selection of drawings to display in 2019, we are sure visitors will be just as excited about this unique opportunity to see his works on show in the Midlands.”
Leonardo da Vinci, The head of an old bearded man, c.1517-18 RCIN 912499
credit: Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018
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