da Vinci exhibition

[julesjones]

Spousal Unit and self have been meaning to go to the touring exhibition of ten drawings by Leonardo da Vinci from the Royal Collection at the Manchester Art Gallery for a while now, but it just hasn't happened because we've been away/busy on weekends since it opened. We finally did something about it today, and spent a pleasant hour in the gallery admiring the drawings and noting other things in the permanent collection that we ought to come back and see.

I'm not sure I'd travel a long way just to see the da Vinci exhibition, but if you're in the neighbourhood it's well worth spending some time with the drawings. You can see all ten online at the Royal collection website for an idea of what's on offer, but the website doesn't begin to do these pieces justice. The level of detail you can see in the real thing is quite astonishing, and it's a joy to be able to get up close and personal with these pieces, even if they aren't as showy as some of his work.

Comments

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

A few da Vinci drawings were on display at Windsor Castle when I went in 2005, and you're absolutely right. They're amazing in person, especially if you can get relatively up-close to them.

[julesjones]

That was the real joy of this exhibition. They're mounted in frames behind glass for protection, but you can get right up to them -- you could press your nose against the glass if you were rude enough to do so, although I suspect the staff would suggest that you not do it again. And there were a couple of Fresnel lenses lying around in the room so you could magnify to inspect the details, although I found better results by resorting to my reading glasses. I may well go again equipped with magnifying glass.