From the collections of the Biblioteca Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan, this exhibition will present Portrait of a Musician by Leonardo da Vinci, the master artist of the Renaissance, and 22 leaves from his Codice Atlantico notebooks. The works will be accompanied by some 100 oil paintings and drawings by painters of the Leonardo school whose work shows his influence, in an endeavor to show the essence and breadth of the art of Leonardo.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)—the grand master of the Italian Renaissance. This exhibition will gather in one location representative works of the Biblioteca Pinacoteca Ambrosiana—including Leonardo’s Portrait of a Musician and 22 leaves from his Codice Atlantico notebooks—in an endeavor to explore the appeal of Leonardo’s works and the thought processes behind them. The exhibition will also demonstrate Leonardo’s influences through oil paintings by Bernardino Luini, Giampietrino, and other of his pupils (Leonardeschi), and will underscore his importance as a draughtsman in the history of drawing since the Italian Renaissance through selected gems from the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana’s collection of drawings. This will be the first presentation in Japan of the collection of the Biblioteca Pinacoteca Ambrosiana—a library and picture gallery founded in the 17th century by Cardinal Federico Borromeo, archbishop of Milan. It will thus be a precious opportunity to view an important historical collection and to savor Leonardo’s extraordinary legacy of genius.