Leonardo da Vinci Atlantic Code: an endless history
Da Vinci Atlantic Code is now accessible to everybody: the biggest Da Vinci collection of drawings and writings includes 1119 sheets in 12 volumes.
The exhibition is located in the Bramante sacristy of Santa Maria delle Grazie Church and in the Sala Federiciana of Pinacoteca Ambrosiana.
The name of this huge collection is due to its large format which is similar to an atlas. The collection was divided in 2009 after long international discussions with the Royal Collection and Madrid’s Bibliotheca Nacional. Da Vinci’s sheets will be at the center of an exhibition cycle which will last until Milan’s Expo 2015. 24 thematic exhibition will last 3 months each one for a total period of 6 years.
Until today Atlantic Code’s drawings collection, which is the most representative of Da Vinci’s last forty years, was kept inaccessible to the public in Ambrosiana gallery’s caveau, near Milan Cathedral.
For the Atlantic Code it is a return to its origin, at the end of the Sixteenth Century, when Pompeo Leoni, the favorite sculptor of Philip the Second of Spain, could collect nearly fifty Da Vinci’s manuscripts including “in folio” and little notebooks. Leoni gave a sense to this collection by uniting it in two large albums. One album was dedicated to artistic drawings, including anatomy drawings. This album was owned then by England’s Royal House and was thus called “Windsor sheets”. The other album collected war machines drawings, underwater machines and flying machines drawings, contributions to mechanics, painting and sculpture, fables, apologues and philosophical meditations, which became the Atlantic Code. The Code was finally donated to Ambrosiana gallery, after many vicissitudes, including a theft by Napoleon.
Opening hours
Bramante sacristy in Santa Maria delle Grazie church: Tuesday and Sunday 8.30 am – 7 pm.
Pinacoteca Ambrosiana gallery: Tuesday and Sunday 9 am – 7 pm.
Booking
www.ambrosiana.eu
Tel.: +39 051 588 1 589
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