Global Courant
From today, the Inside a Genius Mind platform can be consulted, the project that gathered information from all over the world and that allows a unique approach to the work and life of the Renaissance genius.
The fascinating and still surprising world of Leonardo Da Vinci was compiled by the Google Arts & Culture platform with the collaboration of experts and institutions from all over the world, a work only possible through digitization processes. Inside a Genius Mind is available online today to view high-quality images of his seven codices, explore immersive 3D models of 17 inventions he sketched out, and learn more than 80 stories linked to the genius of genius. Renaissance.
Some of these stories, such as the reflections on the human body and the links it maintained with nature, or the story behind Benci’s Portrait of Geneva, the only Da Vinci work to be found in the United States and which anticipates the composition of his most famous work, The Mona Lisa, were part of the press presentation made by the Google Arts & Culture team worldwide.
Among the project participants and collaborators were, in addition to the director of the platform, Amit Sood, the English expert on Da Vinci, Martin Kemp, and the curator of Italian and Spanish art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Eve Straussman-Pflanzer.
“I don’t think you can get that close unless you’re on this platform. I think if you click on one of the high-resolution images, it’s great to see it at this granular level so quickly,” Sood said of one of the most interesting elements that Inside allows Genius Mind to examine the works up close. teachers. The Google team worked for several years, they did not specify how many, with delays due to the pandemic, to finish the project.
The story behind Benci’s portrait of Guinevere, the work that anticipates the composition of his most famous work, The Mona Lisa, can be found in Inside a Genius Mind.
In total, 28 institutions from around the world that have Da Vinci material collaborated. It is ironic that the artist of whom only 20 paintings are known and whose drawing or sketch rarely goes on sale, – hence why Salvator Mundi has become the most expensive work of art in the world when it auctioned off in 2017 for US$ s 450 million – continue to be the subject of studies, research and projects that find new edges from which to approach it.
Of its codices, 1,300 pages were gathered in a single place, something impossible if one takes into account that they are all found in different parts of the world and, even if one wanted to set up an exhibition, moving to other places is not advisable or encouraged by the institutions. .
For example, you can consult the Codex Atlanticus, where Da Vinci talks about his life and includes an introductory letter detailing his multifaceted abilities. Leonardo also showed the more everyday side of him in these texts, such as the passing comment about a refreshing soup that he left in the Codex Arundel.
“Artificial intelligence helped organize the information in tags, to also be able to navigate based on concepts”, points out the director of Google Arts & Culture.
Of Da Vinci’s codices, 1,300 pages were collected in one place.
In terms of inventions, Da Vinci was a pioneer in imagining flying machines, but the lack of technology in his time made it impossible to materialize them. From immersive 3D recreations, some of the Italian artist’s machines come to digital life.
Meanwhile, thanks to Google’s image generator with artificial intelligence, new machines can be created by combining Da Vinci’s sketches, while the drawings included in his codices can also be combined on a digital whiteboard to establish connections between elements of nature. , science and technology, just like the Italian genius did.
Finally, the platform also includes Street View tours of the places where Da Vinci was born, created some of his key pieces, and died. You can visit Vinci, his native city; entering Milan’s Sforza Castle which he decorated; or visit the castle of Amboise, where he died and is buried.
