Leonardo da Vinci is the star in a blockbuster retrospective that opened on Thursday at the Louvre museum in Paris to mark 500 years since the death of the Renaissance master.
Some 2,40,000 people have already reserved their place in line for the exhibition, the biggest ever organised to showcase the Tuscan polymath’s indelible contributions to humanity — with an emphasis on his painting.
A decade in the planning, the show simply titled “Leonardo da Vinci” groups 162 works, including 24 drawings loaned by Queen Elizabeth II of Britain from the Royal Collection.
The British Museum, the Hermitage of Saint Petersburg and the Vatican have also contributed, as well as, of course, Italy.
The exhibition in the Hall Napoleon, which runs until February 24, features 10 of the fewer than 20 paintings definitively attributed to the Renaissance master, as well as drawings, manuscripts, sculptures and other objets d’art. Visitors follow a timeline of the master’s career under the tutelage of dukes, princes and kings, from Florence to Milan, Venice and Rome, and finally France, where he spent the last three years of his life.
