The Mind of Leonardo – In Florence the Uffizi Gallery

We fantasize over great minds. Their intellectual capabilities are surely a link to some divine power. Their words hold messages that explain why we are here, premonitions to guide us into the future, and warnings of what is important. From Nostradamos to DaVinci our future can be discovered in the past.


Leonardo DaVinci was a great man, an engineer, an anatomist, an inventor, an artist, a philosopher. His works of civil engineering are still used today to supply water to the city of Milan. His Monna Lisa is revered as one of the most intriguing portraits of all time and his studies of flight are one of basic premises of the helicopter. The basis for all his accomplishments is his understanding of forms, the geometric relationship of all things and motion.

Leonardo was the first to apply perspective and motion in paintings. For Leonardo painting was science and the application of mathematics was imperative in the representation of the world around him. Balance, color and depth were mathematical equations. He attempts to show the presence of these laws in all spheres of nature: from the human body to those of animals, from the branches of trees to those of rivers, from geometric shapes to those of fossils. This concept of the infinite malleability of forms is a salient feature of his entire activity as artist, designer of machines and investigator of the phenomena of the physical world.

We are fascinated with the fiction of the DaVinci code but there is an opportunity to see the works of Leonardo. An exhibit of the study of geometric forms and the Mind of Leonardo is open through January 2007 at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. You can see the real thing, unabridged and without the dramatic representation of a fictional novel. In the history of man few individual’s accomplishments have spanned the eons of time. Leonardo is one of them and you can experience his genius first hand.


Tags: Leonardo Davinci Uffizi Gallery Italian Museums Tuscany Florence Art and Culture Renaissance Travel Italy