A Creative Renaissance
Sketch by Leonardo da Vinci
A fascinating display of Renaissance inventions, art and architecture is now showing at the The Tech Museum of Innovation in downtown San Jose . The traveling exhibit from Italy, titled “Leonardo: 500 Years into the Future,” will be at The Tech until January 25, 2009. This will be the only U.S. appearance, so do not miss it.
The exhibit features dozens of large wood and cast-iron machines, modeled to scale, showing the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci and Sienese engineers experimenting with geometry and mechanisms. In the fourteenth century, according to the museum guide, there was less distinction between art and science.
I was reminded of architectural history class when I saw the very large wooden model replicating the dome over the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, located in Florence, Italy. It was interesting to hear a tour guide say that the architect, Filippo Brunelleschi, was as proud of the machinery invented for construction as he was for the architectural design.
-TJC