Leonardo, Five Hundred Years Into the Future, Part II

Mona Lisa by Leonardo Davinci

There have been many speculations and tall tales regarding one of our Art History most famous paintings, Mona Lisa , painted by Leonardo da Vinci. Some of the chatter is that it took him almost 17 years before he completed this painting; she is actually a self-portrait of the painted himself; she was his secret lover; and many others have circulated for the hundreds of years Mona Lisa has looked back at us.

After experiencing this incredible showing of one of our GREATEST Masters in history I spent some time with this painting of 'Mona' with a new perspective on the man, the artist, and the most intriguing mind of this person, Leonardo!

As a painter myself most of my life I have been aware of specific theories and principles in applications of perspective and such for painting. Little did I realize that much of today's practices were constructed by the master himself throughout his journals.

Leonardo's fascination of how and why things appear or move led him into proving his theories. He even risked being put to death to "study" human cadavers.

One of his studies was his deep belief that man evolved from bird and man could once again fly!

I was so intrigued with this part of the exhibition for prior to this, I had not realized that Leonardo truly believed , with all his heart, that we human evolved from bird. I knew he was really "the first man to fly", taking years studying and constructing different flying machines. Until visiting and spending time with Leonardo during my visit to the San Jose, Tech Museum and this fantastic exhibition which took a team of 40 artisans, many from Italy, over four months of installation , I had not realized just how much of Leonardo is with us in present day practices, machinery, art and ideals!

Leonardo, Five Hundred Years into the Future: Part One

Leonardo: 500 Years Into the Future "represents the remarkable achievements of fifteenth century artist-engineers - Filippo Brunelleschi, The Sienese Engineers, and Leonardo da Vinci - and exemplifies the pivotal unity of art, technology and science.
This exhibition brings together over 200 artifacts, including drawings, sculptures and life-size models of the art, architectural projects, machines and mechanisms crafted from the original notebooks of the Renaissance artist-engineers. Didactic tools, including multi-media stations with interactive functions, put the machines and achievements of Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance artist-engineers into modern day context. "

San Jose Tech Museum website

In my welcoming in the beginnings of 2009 I went to pay a visit to the incrediable time of the Renaissance. It just so happened that I was visiting with family in the San Jose area for the Holidays. I found that one of the most intriquing person was also visiting, Leonardo da Vinci! I managed an entire day taking in the wonders displayed at the San Jose Tech Museum.

I spent over four hours experiencing the mind and inventions, animated sculptures, paintings, drawings and notebooks of Leonardo DaVinci. To stand before ten of his personal journals, filled with theories , thoughts and sketches of his incredible mind, gave me "chicken skin" up and down my back and arms. I could almost feel his thoughts as I concentrated on the tiny drawings and writings. Leonardo's thoughts on the movement of water or what causes wind to move and birds to fly.

It was written that Leonardo's journals "often appear incoherent and of no logical order". I saw them as a flow of his ingenious mind. How his thoughts could fragment and then take form again in a perfection of order with all that he visioned and designed.

Leonardo da Vinci included comprehensibly art, technology and science, not separate from one another, but as a whole. His imagination and ideas have and continue to inspire generations of scientists, artists and inventors.