Comments on: Review of “Leonardo da Vinci: Hand of the Genius” at Atlanta’s High Museum

By: silvio troiani

silvio troiani — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 09:05:09 +0000

…le due formelle in terracotta da voi presentate come originali…”Two terra-cotta reliefs from the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio.” sono soltanto due copie di due originali prodotti da Lionardo…quella a destra di chi guarda, è opera giovanile (1465-6) a Bacchereto nella fornace di nonna Lucia e tratta da un suo disegno. Quella a sinistra eseguita nel 1475-6 per un trittico con al centro una Vergine con Bambino…per il “Cenotafio Niccolò Forteguerri “Queste due formelle avrebbero dovuto fiancheggiare una Madonna con bambino del Verrocchio nel contesto del cenotafio (tomba vuota) “Niccolò Forteguerri” (1419-1473), per il quale il Verrocchio aveva vinto l’appalto…che abbandonò nel 1476…quindi le due formelle non possono vantare l’uso della stessa argilla, poi…le differenze dagli originali dai quali provengono i possibili “calchi”…tanto devo all’arte…silvio troiani

By: Jeremy Abernathy

Jeremy Abernathy — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:49:27 +0000

It reminds me of the attitude taken by the Golden Pharoahs (aka King Tut) exhibit at the Civic Center last year. The educational texts were monumentally sized; the introduction was narrated by Harrison Ford; and the final room was a bit of a gadget-festival reminiscent of TV science/detective dramas like CSI. It’s almost like the priority was to assert the objects’ kinship with movie myth, as if television was the uncontested measure of truth that these artifacts had to somehow live up to.
If our institutions really believe in the future of our increasingly bright, tech-savvy children (more tech-savvy than even my generation), I’m not sure if patronizing them is the right way to go at it.
(Don’t get me started on Dan Brown; I tried to bury that long ago. Har har.)

By: A. Richard Bunn, AIA

A. Richard Bunn, AIA — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:34:23 +0000

Cathy:
I liked the exhibit but it certainly pales in comparison to the one which was mounted at the Uffizi which truly showed Lenardo’s genius in exhaustive fashion. That exhibit would take weeks to fully absorb.
There is one issue that I take with this exhibit and that is the providing of magnifying glasses to the viewers. I found that the intrusion of others who peered for considerable time at close range was distracting and inhibited the enjoyment of others. The High really needs to rethink this and either provide an entire magnifying plane in front of the small scale works or forgo the individual magnifying glasses.