the genius of da vinci

speaking of "mad" men.... i just got back from singapore and my first stop when i got there was the Da Vinci exhibit at the Singapore Science Center with singapore salsa....




such an interesting (and rather dorky) exhibit (and poses)! haha

much of the exhibit came from his "codices" - little notebooks where he wrote and drew all his great ideas on! one codex was on display in a glass case (apparently, bill gates owns one or some of his codices). he wrote on them backwards, as in from right to left, and the letters are literally backwards too. they say it is because he was a natural lefty, and also so he could keep his ideas secret. here's what one of the pages looked like....


the pages were decoded and his drawings were built and displayed at the exhibit. here's his early ideas for a "chopper"...



looking through his inventions, you realize he had an idea for almost everything we know in the modern world... the airplane, the military tank, scuba diving, the piano, the clock ...


the car...


anatomy...


he was an inventor, a scientist, engineer, sculptor, anatomist, biologist, musician, architect, philosopher and an artist. i love what he said "art is never finished, only abandoned" (nuk).

so there was a whole section on the mona lisa too of course. unfortunately, they can't display the actual painting so they had replicas of it displayed. they actually took an infra red photo of the mona lisa to reveal a lot of details we can't see anymore - because of aging, or because it has been painted over in several layers....


did you know that...
- she is actually wearing veil? its a very thin layer that can hardly be seen anymore
- that darkish figure on the left of the painting is actually a detailed column
- there is also a detailed railing (on which the column rests), which actually situates her in some sort of porch or balcony
- the arm chair she is sitting on is also much more detailed than we see it
- she is also holding a blanket on her lap, that is pressed between her arm and belly (which also explains why her arms and wrists are bent that way)

..... eenteresting.....