User Reviews

I saw last night at the local cinematheque one of the oldest art documentaries of the series 'Exhibition on Screen', dedicated to Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings and made in 2012 by Phil Grabsky, on the occasion of the exhibition that had gathered in one place in 2011, at the National Gallery in London, 9 of the 15 authenticated paintings of the multi-disciplinary genius of the Renaissance. A new documentary film in this series will be released in November, commemorating the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's death. It will be interesting to see how the image - already so complex and interesting - will be complemented by Leonardo's integral work, which can probably never be brought together except in a virtual museum format.

The format of the documentaries in the series was not yet stable in 2012, but we already have quite a few elements from what made 'Exhibition on Screen' a formidable collection of testimonies and ideas centered around important exhibitions of the last decade in art. We are taken by hand and walked through the exhibition halls, we have both the visualization of the context and locations in which the works of art are exhibited, as well as a detailed description from the curators of the exhibition, experts in art history and general history, and specialists in the domains related to paintings (religion and music, for example). Missing, I think, are a more personal vision and a more original and less scholastic approach. These will appear in a few years in the documentaries of the series but are missing here.

Leonardo Da Vinci was a huge personality, who activated in multiple fields, and in many of them he was a pioneer and a revolutionary, his contributions changing the course of the disciplines in which he excelled. Painting is one of these areas, but the small number of paintings that have survived, make his influence in this domain (very strong at the time) to require more explanations and connections with what he has achieved in other branches of arts and sciences. It is precisely here that the text of the comments suffers from a schematic and simplistic approach in my opinion. Too little is discussed about Leonardo's technique of painter, or the luminosity of the overlapping layers of his oil paintings. Also, no connection is made between the physiognomy of his painted subjects and his deep knowledge of anatomy. The description of his engineering career and achievements seens to be supplied more as a filling material, without having a direct connection with the paintings of the Milanese period, although it is at that time a large part of his sketches and projects as architect and engineer were also made. I can only hope that the new documentary film that will be screened in a few months will fix at least some of these gaps.

It was exhilarating to walk into a movie complex and experience an art exhibit from a world class museum. Arguably, the single most important grouping of the paintings of Leonardo da Vince in history was captured through the medium of a documentary film in a "one night only" screening in select American theaters.

The film presents the celebrated National Gallery in London's exhibit of nine of the extant fifteen paintings of Leonardo da Vinci. The film was built around historical background on Leonardo's life, the behind-the-scenes planning of the exhibit, and detailed analysis of the individual paintings.

The film's producers invited guest commentators from a wide range of disciplines, including art history, dance, film, photography, and theater. This eclectic mix of expertise was a fitting tribute to the myriad-minded Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci, who was fascinated by every artistic and intellectual discipline of his age.

The high definition filming of the individual paintings was a revelation. I have visited the National Gallery on multiple occasions and spent hours in front of Leonardo's "The Madonna of the Rocks." But recently, the painting has undergone a major restoration. The high definition imagery provided details of the painting that I never perceived in person at the museum. The greatest achievement of the exhibit was to persuade the Louvre to loan Leonardo's second version of "The Madonna of the Rocks" to the National Gallery for an instructive comparison of these two similar masterworks.

There were many surprises in this exhibit, but none greater than the human side of Leonardo's portrait of "The Lady with an Ermine." Although I have seen this painting in countless reproductions in books, I never grasped the lifelike quality of both the woman's face and the animal. With his intuitive grasp of human nature and his sensitivity to animals, Leonardo succeeded in bringing the pulsating figure of the ermine to life and making the animal inseparable from the woman who lovingly holds the pet. Because this painting was on loan from the permanent collection of the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, Poland, I know that this will be the most intimate experience I have of this great painting in my lifetime.

The exhibit also made the bold claim for a newly "discovered" Leonardo painting tentatively authenticated by art experts. The high definition images of the so-called Salvator Mundi (Christ as Savior of the World) allowed viewers the opportunity to make an informed decision about whether this painting should be placed in the same category as the other works of Leonardo. Is this a genuine painting by the master, or is it one of the many imitations completed by other artists?

Sadly, the studio was only a quarter filled and almost exclusively with senior citizens for the screening of "Leonardo Live." It is an unfortunate commentary on our culture that this unique documentary film did not attract a greater and more diverse audience. In Renaissance Italy, Leonardo was never fully appreciated and he was constantly on the move in search of his next commission. The film conveyed that while he left undeniable imprints of his genius, Leonardo was a loner in his time. Despite the attention generated from Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," Leonardo the human being still remains an enigma and not fully recognized for his genius. But for the small audience of "Leonardo Now," the miracle of his paintings was self-evident and absolutely captivating.

Huge disappointment.

The documentary came miles short of my expectations. The film creators have missed a one in lifetime opportunity.

There is very little depth, the narration is very superficial. At least 60-70% of the film is wasted on boring and mostly hollow conversations and interviews with some irrelevant "celebrities", who have nothing much to say. Worse, the interviews take place in a lobby, and Leonardo's art is not even shown on the screen!

The documentary is marketed as HD, but do not expect too many pixels. I would speculate that the material was shot with a regular TV camera.