Italian polymath, artist, inventor and all-round genius Leonardo da Vinci is one of the most revered painters of all time, however, you’d usually have to cop an expensive plane ticket and stand in a looooong queue just to get a brief glimpse of his famous works. Fortunately, the Lume is giving Melburnians the chance to admire his works on a grand new scale, right here on our own turf.
Leonardo da Vinci – 500 Years of Genius is set to open in March 2024 and will feature projections of some of the world’s most famous works of art including the 'Mona Lisa' and 'The Last Supper'. Visitors will journey into the mind of a genius with projections storeys high showcasing da Vinci’s breathtaking High Renaissance paintings in an accessible way.
This won’t be your typical stroll through an art gallery, though. Instead, the lines between art and reality will blur as visitors explore the vast 3,000m2 multi-sensory space located inside the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. To complement the paintings brought to life on the Lume’s colossal canvas, the digital experience will happen alongside awe-inspiring artefacts on loan from Rome’s Museo Leonardo da Vinci.
Aside from his visually stunning artworks, Leonardo da Vinci was also an inventor beyond his era, whose pioneering ideas in the fields of engineering and architecture laid the groundwork for the scientific advancements we enjoy today. Now, visitors will see the groundbreaking inventions from his notebooks recreated to scale, including flying machine concepts that predate human flight by more than 400 years.
The immersive experience will also feature pioneering research more than 15 years in the making by French optical engineer Mr Pascal Cotte, a consultant to the Louvre. He has scanned the Mona Lisa with his 240,000,000 pixel multispectral camera, peeling back the layers of her storied smile to reveal previously hidden details.
“The results shatter many myths and alter our vision of Leonardo's masterpiece forever,” says Cotte. His exact 360-degree replica of the framed painting is the only one of its kind in the world.
Head to the Lume’s website for more information and for tickets, which are on sale now.