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"LEONARDO LIVE"  AT CINEPLEX                   Journalist: Myriam Sainson

Date: January 9, 2012  Region: Sherbrooke

Being presented around the world...and closer to those of us in Canada, is the film ‘Leonardo Live’, which was shown at the opening of the ‘Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan’ exhibition, held in the famous National Gallery of London (November 9, 2011 to February 5, 2012). The screening of this film will be presented by Cineplex Entertainment (February 16 & 26, 2012). Echoing the actual exhibition, this movie describes, in an extraordinary manner, this particular film brings together sixty paintings, drawings and student works of this painter-philosopher and musician, dating back to his stay with the Duke Ludovico Sforza, in Milan, from 1480-1499. The film reveals the twists and insights of the exhibition, through the halls of “the Sainsbury Wing” and “Sunley Room”.

This movie with historian Tim Marlow and Mariella Frostrip will also look at the inside of the Royal Library in Windsor Castle – this unique exhibition, which disrupts the world of painting, attracts on a daily base art lovers around the world to admire the legacy of the Italian Renaissance, a transcendent naturalism which deeply scans the physical human realities of the brain, the facial lines and the shoulders leaving an undeniable mark of purity, such as the drawing '' Ecorché Study of the Neck and the Shoulders'' of 1487.

Following the official guide of the exhibition, we are transported from one room to another to discover the richness of the legacy left by Leonardo da Vinci. Room 1 depicts the arrival of Leonardo da Vinci at the Court of Milan which marks the beginning for him, of a quiet revolution, with two masterful paintings, including the one which remains unfinished '' The Musician'' (1490) and '' A Portrait of A Young Man'' (1486); then on to Room 2, for a meeting with the Duke's mistress, Cecilia Gallerani who will become, on canvas, '' The Lady with an Ermine''.

In Room 3, we witness the period of anatomical drawings with studies by da Vinci and his students on the human body. This room also reveals the unfinished painting of ''Saint-Jérome'' (1488-90). Room 4 tells the story of the artist's dialogue with the Divine and the first and second versions of '' Virgin of the Rocks'' ( 1483 and 1491, respectively). We discover the painting '' Madonna Litta'' in Room 5. Room 6 shows the artist living under the occupation of the French troops, in Milan, under the rule of King Louis XII and his painting to the King '' Christ as Salvador Mundi''. Room 7 shows the unfinished work '' The Last Supper'' featuring the 12 apostles, which was painted on the walls of the Convent Santa Maria delle Grazie, in Milan.

Information: www.nationalgallery.org

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Photos: The National Gallery