In 2019, the 500 anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death, and Milan, the city in which he lived the longest time of his life (22 years), dedicates him the program “Milan and Leonardo,” full of exhibitions and cultural events.
One of the events will be the reopening, on May 2, of the “Sala delle Asse” (or wooden room) at the Castello Sforzesco. The great Tuscan master made the decoration of the ceiling in which 16 mulberry trees are represented. The decoration was never finished, and the room is still undergoing restoration. The wooden room will be reopened partially to admire the work of art.
There will also be two more exhibitions at the Castle: in the Ducal Chapel, “Leonardo and the Sala delle Asse between Nature, Art, and Science” (May-August), with drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, by Leonardo’s disciples, and by some contemporary artists, (May 2019-January 2020). Moreover, there will be a multimedia exhibition illustrating the late fifteenth-century life of Milan in the Armory.
There will also be two exhibitions at Palazzo Reale: from March to June, «The wonderful world of nature before and after Leonardo,» with loans from the Natural History Museum of Milan. From October to the following January: “The Last Supper by Leonardo for Francis I.” The exhibition will show a piece of tapestry made of silk and silver owned by the Vatican Museums, which is one of the oldest copies of the “Last Supper” by Leonardo Da Vinci.
At the Last Supper Museum, in front of Leonardo’s masterpiece, from October 2018 to January 2019, there will be an exhibition devoted to some drawings, documents of the long creative process followed by Leonardo to make the last supper.
In the Ambrosiana Museum, from December 2018, four exhibitions are mainly devoted to the sheets of the «Codex Atlanticus» (one of Leonardo Da Vinci).
From autumn 2019, at Palazzo Litta, it will be the turn of «the court of the great master Leonardo da Vinci, Charles d’Amboise and the district of Porta Vercellina,» a tribute to the figure of the governor of Milan, at the time of the French domination.
At the Stelline Foundation, from April to June, there will be the exhibition “The Last Supper after Leonardo” that will show the influence of Leonardo Da Vinci on today’s international artists (such as Anish Kapoor, Nicola Samorì, Wang Guangyi, Yue Minjun, Zhang Huan).
The National Museum of Science and Technology, named after Leonardo da Vinci, already inaugurated, in collaboration with the painting gallery of Brera, the exhibition «Leonardo da Vinci Parade,» an unprecedented dialogue between the models of machines by Leonardo Da Vinci and the frescoes of 16th century Lombard painters.
An international conference and theatrical performances will complete this splendid program strongly desired by the Municipality of Milan and the Lombardy region.
