Da Vinci

William was such a trooper (as always) and came with me to see this exhibit at the Metreon in San Francisco entitled "Da Vinci: An Exhibition in Genius". It turns out that he had seen a different exhibit about Leonardo Da Vinci in Japan so it was even better that he came along. The exhibit was interesting because they took all of the notebooks of Da Vinci and actually made the inventions that he described and then told the logic behind them and if they actually worked in real life. What the exhibit didn't say was if Da Vinci had tried/made all of these inventions before or if he just wrote about them. His anatomy sketches of the human body are so detailed- it was neat to be able to see them close up. But, my favorite part was where they analyzed two of his most famous works- the Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. They actually photographed the images with a special photospectra camera that identifies all of the different layers on the painting, showing where changes/alterations were made. Through the magic of computers, they were able to remove the top layer of varnish to show what the Mona Lisa actually looked like after completion by Da Vinci- the colors were much more vivid- with lighter blues and reds.
Check out the difference! Additionally, she had more of a smirk on her face, as well as eyebrows and eyelashes, to name some of the things that they found. It is so amazing to see how computers and technology are providing an even greater understanding of these pieces of art. I can't wait to see the findings from other great works of art.