Leonardo Da Vinci, The European Genius in Brussels

Brussels is to host one of the most important and complete exhibitions ever organised on Europe's greatest Renaissance Man and arguably the greatest artist and thinker of all time as part of this year’s celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome.

Leonardo - The European Genius will run from 18 August 2007 to 15 March 2008 at the Koekelberg Basilica, the world’s fifth largest church and the biggest Art Deco building ever constructed. It is set to be one of the major events in the Belgian capital this year.

Covering some 3,000m², the exhibition will focus on four main themes - Leonardo the man, Leonardo the artist, Leonardo the engineer, and Leonardo the humanist. It will highlight all aspects of his work including his techniques and will also look at the legacy left by him to the following generations of European artists and scientists.

A number of Leonardo’s original works will be on display including the Codex of the Flight of Birds, on loan from the Turin Library, as well as Leonardo’s only self-portrait in red chalk and theTongerlo Copy after Leonardo's Last Supper, painted barely 20 years after Leonardo completed the original, and reputed to be the most accurate copy of the subsequently damaged fresco.

A portrait painted on a wooden panel of Marie Magdalene will also be on show, for the second time ever after it was first revealed to the world as a Leonardo at Ancona's Mole Vanvitelliana museum in October 2005.

The semi-nude portrait of Mary Magdalene holding a veil over her bare breasts had been unseen for fifty years when it was found five years ago in a private Swiss collection. It had previously been attributed to Da Vinci’s pupil Giampetrino.

The exhibition will also feature facsimiles of Da Vinci’s notebooks, several of his inventions, films about the artist’s universal genius, and no fewer than 45 working models built to scale, including a 20 metre swing bridge never previously constructed.

Leonardo -The European Genius will also contain around one hundred original drawings and sketches by Raphael, Michelangelo, Canaletto, Albrecht Dürer and Hieronymus Bosch.

For more information, log on to Expo-davinci.eu