Leonardo Da Vinci: Traveling Exhibit at the Art Museum

I have heard his name, now and then, for fifty years now. I have seen his paintings and drawings in books and on the Internet and I have marveled at them. So, when I heard that our local art museum had obtained the rights to show a Leonardo exhibit I was elated and determined that I would go see it. It's due to leave us within a few days and will, undoubtedly, move on to some other city. If you get the chance to go see it, DON"T.

I was expecting a hall filled with this master's work; things to marvel at, things to inspire and astound, and I was bitterly disappointed. First, admission to the museum is free and I have made use of it many times. This exhibit carried a substantial admission fee, which is what I expected really. I went to the entrance to the room where it was housed and I was directed to another room instead. I was told that this was also part of the exhibit and included in the price I had paid. OK, I could use a little added bonus, so I went to the other room first. I have to say that there were a lot of interesting things to see in this other room, but I wouldn't have paid to see them on their own, because none of these pieces had anything to do with Leonardo or his work.

There were some very intricate religious carvings in ivory, some gilded bronze pieces, a few paintings and some stained-glass window panes. Anyone interested in such things might have been overjoyed, but those things are not what I went to see. Still, I made sure to give each piece a careful once-over and I even found a few that captured my attention for a while. Then I went on to the main event.

As I walked across the intervening space I had visions of touching the spirit of this man who had lived so long ago. He was so far ahead of his time that I think he would have been at ease in the present day. He invented things that spoke of great leaps of intuition. He tried to invent things that would not be realized for hundreds of years after his death. I wanted to see the drawings that he had made and test whether or not I could feel a connection with this spirit from so long ago. I walked into the room and saw almost nothing.

To my left was a table with two chairs in front of it. There were two computer terminals on the table and a man was clicking away, looking at photocopies or PDF files. In the center of the room there was a group of people gathered around a book in a display case. Not even a group of books, just a single book opened to a specific page. I looked into the next room, hoping that the bulk of the exhibit would be in there, but no, this was the whole thing. When the people moved away I looked at the book and I read the descriptive plaque next to it. The plaque told about the page displayed and it said, correctly, that Leonardo had drawn a dodecahedron on this page of his notebook. It went on to say, incorrectly, that a dodecahedron is a ten-sided figure. It should have said that this is a twelve-sided figure. Some time ago, it was popular to put a calender on one of these, so there is no mistaking them. Each of the twelve sides is a pentagram, a five-sided figure, and twelve of these can be be used to make a solid object; perfect for displaying the twelve months of the year. Anyway, I felt no spiritual link with the past and I couldn't turn the pages (I hadn't expected to be able to do that), so I turned away from the book and returned to the table.

I sat in the empty chair and clicked a few times. I have no doubt that all of Leonardo's work had been stored here and that I could see it all if I wanted to, but I didn't want to. I was sure that all of this is stored somewhere on the Internet and that I could find it in the comfort of my own home if I chose to view it this way. I had come to the museum to see the actual objects themselves and they weren't here. I had allowed myself three hours to view the exhibit and look at some of the other things that the museum had to offer. It took me less than an hour to see what had drawn me here, plus its unexpected bonus room, so I wandered in and out of other rooms for another hour and then left.

I did see a lot of things that were worth going to see, but I could have seen them at any time for free. I felt that I had been tricked and swindled, and it will be quite some time before I find another reason to visit. The most interesting thing I learned today about Leonardo was that he was left-handed, so he taught himself to write from right to left, in order to not make smudges on his page. Now that you know this bit of trivia, you don't have to make the same mistake that I did. Looking back, I would have been happier if I had spent the day watching cartoons, or cleaning out the fridge.