Martin Kemp Lecture at Leonardo3 Museum: Leonardo as Father of Moving Image
On February 15, 2024, at the Leonardo3 Museum in Milan, Martin Kemp, a prominent scholar of Leonardo da Vinci and professor emeritus at Oxford, delivered a lecture titled 'Uno sguardo nuovo su dipinti celeberrimi'. Celebrating its twentieth anniversary under the guidance of artistic director Marco Versiero, the museum featured animations of Leonardo's masterpieces presented as sequential frames. During his talk, Kemp examined the 'Last Supper' and remarked on the 'Salvator Mundi', asserting it contains 'definitely some Leonardo in it'. Versiero recited Leonardo's account of the 'Battle of Anghiari', which Kemp referred to as a 'storyboard for a film about a battle'. A new multimedia exhibit displayed all twenty paintings attributed to Leonardo. Last year, the museum attracted over 250,000 visitors, ranking it among Milan's most frequented attractions.
Key facts
- Martin Kemp gave a lecture at Leonardo3 Museum on February 15, 2024.
- The museum is located in the Sale del Re inside Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan.
- The museum renewed its exhibition for its twentieth anniversary.
- Marco Versiero is the artistic director; Massimiliano Lisa and Edoardo Zanon are also involved.
- Kemp argued Leonardo was obsessed with continuity of forms, making him a precursor to cinema.
- Kemp presented animations of Leonardo's works as sequential frames.
- Kemp analyzed the 'Last Supper' using mathematical metaphors (field equation, metric tensor, variables).
- Kemp stated the 'Salvator Mundi' 'has definitely some Leonardo in it' based on technical analysis.
- A multimedia installation showing all twenty attributed paintings was presented.
- The museum sold over 250,000 tickets last year.
- Kemp is professor emeritus at Oxford and author of '50 anni con Leonardo' (Mondadori, 2019).
- The lecture included a recitation of Leonardo's description of the 'Battle of Anghiari'.
- Kemp described the 'Battle of Anghiari' description as a 'storyboard for a film'.
- Kemp emphasized Leonardo's multidisciplinary approach, rejecting the 'two cultures' dichotomy.
Entities
Artists
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Martin Kemp
- Marco Versiero
- Massimiliano Lisa
- Edoardo Zanon
- Salaj
- Cesare da Sesto
- Boltraffio
- Marco da Oggiono
- Pietro Magni
- Paolo Giovio
- Roger Penrose
- Francis Bacon
- René Descartes
- Galileo Galilei
- Charles P. Snow
- Carl Sagan
Institutions
- Leonardo3 Museum
- Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
- University of Oxford
- Mondadori
- Artribune
Locations
- Milan
- Italy
- Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
- Sale del Re
- Piazza Scala
- Convento delle Grazie
- Oxford
- England