Review of Leonardo Da Vinci at Alabama's Birmingham Museum of Art

According to the flier I received as I walked into the museum, the exhibition for the Leonardo da Vinci drawings are available for viewing from September 28 to November 9 (2008). These groups of sketches are on loan from the Biblioteca Reale in Turin. This is the first time that these drawings have been made available outside of Italy in their entirety.

The exhibition is located on the third floor, easily found by following the signs that point you in the right direction. I had to wait in line for approximately 35-40 minutes before I was allowed into the temperature controlled room that housed Leonardo's works. There are some beautiful and rather interesting pieces of artwork from Asia to peruse while waiting in line, making the wait far less daunting.

About ten minutes before the doors of the exhibit, I was given a rather large magnifying glass and a sheet of paper titled, "10 Fun Facts About Leonardo." This proved to be interesting reading. One of the facts listed was that Leonardo wrote backwards because he was left handed. Writing backwards prevented him from smudging his work.

Finally, I walked into the room to be greeted by more information about Leonardo. Written on the first wall are numerous facts about him and his work. It told of where he was born, where he died, and gave the locations of where his most famous pieces of art were painted and are now housed. It also gave a time line of his life and career. Copies of some of this finest works were on the first wall, including "The Last Supper."

Because of the amount of people in the exhibit, there was a short wait before you could see each piece up close. Worth the wait, the first sketch I encountered was "Angel for the 'Virgin of the Rocks.'" Using your magnifying glass, you can see the individual strokes of the piece. The sketch was done with metal point heightened with white on prepared paper. The majority of the works were done in this manner, with chalk, or metal point.

Also located in the first room was "Knot Design In an Oval" and "Sketches for a Machine.." There were five sections in total, and three separate rooms. Interspersed between the two rooms were "Studies of the hindquarters of a Horse," "Studies of a Horse," "Longhorn Beetle and Dragonfly," "Figure Near a Fire with Moths," "Study of a Young Woman's Face," and "Proportions of the Head and Eye." I counted roughly fifteen sketches in all throughout the exhibit, but the highlight was located directly in the center, "Codex on the Flight of Birds." Located within a temperature controlled showcase, the book was well lit, and you could easily see Leonardo's illustrations and strange handwriting.

In a separate room to itself was a hands-on portion of the exhibit. Three sketchbooks lay open compelling visitors to try their hand at different drawing techniques including cross hatching. The far wall depicted more of Leonardo's masterpieces with detailed information about each piece including the "Mona Lisa." A table stood in the middle of the room with several books all about Leonardo da Vinci to peruse through. This room was significantly smaller than the other rooms which made maneuvering very difficult.

Finally, upon exiting, on the last room's walls hung over sized reproductions of several pages from his "Codex on the Flight of Birds." Unfortunately, I found it impossible to read his writing, but the diagrams were, of course, extraordinary.

In all, the exhibit was very well done and the opportunity to get up close and personal to this artist legend's work was a rare treat. I expected to have to pay to get in, but discovered that there was no charge, so this was a nice surprise. I was disappointed, however, with the lack of space to move around in due to the crowds of people. All in all, I would have to say that it was one trip that was well worth my time.