For an overwhelming amount of Leonardo, you can look through 570 digitized pages of Codex Arundel here. Onscreen glosses explain the content of the cryptic notes surrounding the many technical drawings, diagrams, and schematics (see a selection of the notebooks in this animated format here). The digitized notebooks debuted in 2007 as a joint project of the British Library and Microsoft called “Turning the Pages 2.0,” an interactive feature that allows viewers to “turn” the pages of the notebooks with animations. It was more than 300 years before many of his ideas were improved upon.” Melzi’s heirs, who had no idea of the importance of the manuscripts, gradually disposed of them.” Nonetheless, over 5,000 pages of notes “still exist in Leonardo’s ‘mirror writing’, from right to left.” In the notebooks, da Vinci drew “visions of the aeroplane, the helicopter, the parachute, the submarine and the car. After Leonardo’s death in France, writes the British Library, his student Francesco Melzi “brought many of his manuscripts and drawings back to Italy. He made no effort to get his notes published.”įor hundreds of years, the huge, secretive collection of manuscripts remained mostly unseen by all but the most rarified of collectors. Through October 29th at the Klein Theatre 450 7th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004.The notebook, writes Jonathan Jones at The Guardian, represents “the living record of a universal mind.” And yet, though a “technophile” himself, “when it came to publication, Leonardo was a luddite…. Highly creative, extraordinarily elegant and utterly enchanting, I would give it five stars (if I gave out stars, which as you know I do not). Gerckens Sound Design and Original Music by Michael Bodeen Original Music by Miriam Sturm. Scenic Design by Scott Bradley who imagines Leonardo’s life as walls of wooden file drawers from which are pulled the many props used in the production Costume Designer Mara Blumenfeld whose clever interpretation gifts us with both athletic wear and Italian Renaissance period apparel Lighting Designer T. Left to right: Wai Yim, Adeoye, Louise Lamson and Andrea San Miguel in “The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci” (Photo by Scott Suchaman) They are Adeoye, Christopher Donahue, Kasey Foster, John Gregorio, Anthony Irons, Louise Lamson, Andrea San Miguel, and Wai Yim.The harmony and grace of their physical interactions are utterly mesmerizing. The cast is credited with being all “Leonardos”. “A bird is an instrument working according to mathematical law.” He examined the dynamics of the folds of curtains with his theory on drapery as much as he did that of the complexities of nature. There is nothing superfluous in its examination of the mind of the artist/inventor as he ponders the flight of a bird. It is sensuous, stunning and intellectually stimulating. “The body is a machine,” he concluded.Īndrea San Miguel (left) and Wai Yim in “The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci” (Photo by Scott Suchman)Īcrobatic Consultant Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi along with Movement Consultant Tracy Walsh present these complicated intellectual concepts in lyrically and quite often humorously choreographed vignettes designed to express Da Vinci’s logic and conclusions as he strived to explain all earthly life.Īs beautifully depicted as these complex ideations are, the spirit of the writer’s musings is the always the focus as expressed by an exceptional cast practiced in balletic movement and speech. With his concept of the “18 positions of man” he devised modes of thinking to explain how the physical body should be portrayed on canvas through the “harmony of proportion”. He studied and analyzed everything from vanishing perspective to the dynamics of motion in order to achieve mathematical perfection through his painting. “Instants are the boundaries of time,” Leonardo explains.ĭa Vinci’s musings and experiments were far from pedestrian. The Notebooks of Leonardo Da VinciIs an elegant exploration into Da Vinci’s thought-provoking revelations. Presented in magical realism, she interweaves his observations on the science of the universe in extraordinarily elegant fashion, casting actors accomplished in the art of kinetic motion and physical expression through mime, gesture, and speech. WASHINGTON, DC – In an homage to the genius of Da Vinci, Writer/Director Mary Zimmerman brings us into the mind of the master through his observations. Christopher Donahue in “The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci” Photo by Scott Suchaman)
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