Da Vinci mode: Shows about art, invention around the country

Cities host shows about da Vinci art, inventions

NEW YORK — Several cities around the country are in da Vinci mode with shows about Leonardo da Vinci’s art and inventions.

In New York, “Leonardo Da Vinci’s Workshop: Inventor + Artist + Dreamer,” opens Nov. 20 at the Discovery Times Square Exposition and runs through April 4. The show offers full-scale, interactive models of da Vinci’s inventions, including his ideas for the airplane, automobile, robot knight and mechanical lion.

In Baltimore, “Da Vinci — The Genius: A Traveling Exhibit” at the Maryland Science Center through Jan. 31 features some of his inventions, anatomical drawings and writings, plus “secrets of ‘The Last Supper’ and the ‘Mona Lisa’ revealed in 3D animation. “

In Atlanta, an exhibit of sculptures and sketches by da Vinci and his contemporaries is at the High Museum, including some never before seen outside of Europe, borrowed from the Vatican’s art collection, the Louvre in Paris and the royal collection at Windsor Castle in England.

The exhibit will be at the High until February, when a modified version of the show travels to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The centerpiece is a nearly 30-foot recreation of da Vinci’s destroyed horse statue, which towers over the plaza outside the High. Inside the museum are the meticulous drawings and anatomical notes he made of horses in hopes of perfectly capturing the animals’ motion. The work was never completed because the bronze intended for the statue was used to make cannons, and a plaster model was destroyed by soldiers.

(This version DELETES reference to Birmingham show which took place last year)