In Vinci, the exhibition Leonardo in Vinci. At the Origins of the Genius, organized by the Museo Leonardiano in collaboration with the Gallerie degli Uffizi, is centered on Leonardo’s biographical connection to his hometown and on the suggestions that his homeland offered toward his itinerary as artist, technician, and scientist. In this perspective, some documents from the Archivio di Stato di Firenze (Florence State Archives) are presented, fundamental for the reconstruction of the earliest events in the life of the artist, along with his first known drawing, the Landscape, dated 5 August 1473, conserved at the Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe of the Gallerie degli Uffizi in Florence. Of great suggestiveness is the notary register on which the artist’s grandfather, Antonio da Vinci, recorded Leonardo’s birth, along with the land registry references of the da Vinci family pertinent to the artist’s infancy and early childhood. In the section dedicated to the 1473 drawing of the Landscape, identified as a representation of the Valdinievole and of a part of the Valdarno Inferiore, we see a record of the suggestions offered to the young Leonardo by his homeland. The image, in fact, constitutes a veritable “palimpsest” of all of Leonardo’s future work, in that it is already possible to glimpse therein his profound interest in nature, his fascination for water and its movement, his researches in the fields of geology and cartography. In this context, and thanks also to the multimedia presentations, the drawing can be read from several points of view, from the historical-artistic to the historical-geographic, highlighting the thematic elements present in relation to Leonardo’s successive scientific, technical, and engineering inquiries. Set up in the Museo Leonardiano, the exhibition is thus integrated with a portion of the Museum’s collection of machines and models relating to studies on water, hydraulic engineering, and cartographic representation of the Valdarno Inferiore.
The exhibition can be visited with the ticket of the Vinci Museums