some politics over celebrating 500 years of passing away of Leonardo da Vinci

The genius - Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (1452 – 1519), more commonly Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian polymath of the Renaissance whose areas of interest included invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography. He has been variously called the father of palaeontology, ichnology, and architecture, and he is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. Sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter, and tank,  he epitomised the Renaissance humanist ideal.

Dan Brown is a great writer and packs so many illustrious things in each page – now am engrossed in his book ‘Origin’.  The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown. It follows "symbologist" Robert Langdon and cryptologist Sophie Neveu after a murder in the Louvre Museum in Paris causes them to become involved in a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus Christ having been a companion to Mary Magdalene.

The title of the novel refers to the finding of the first murder victim in the Grand Gallery of the Louvre, naked and posed similar to Leonardo da Vinci's famous drawing, the Vitruvian Man, with a mathematical message written beside his body and a pentagram drawn on his chest in his own blood.  The book starts with -   Louvre Curator and Priory of Sion grand master Jacques Saunière  fatally shot one night at the museum by an albino Catholic monk named Silas, who is working on behalf of someone he knows only as the Teacher, who wishes to discover the location of the "keystone," an item crucial in the search for the Holy Grail.

The Louvre or the Louvre Museum   is the world's largest art museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement (district or ward). Approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres.  The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as the Louvre castle in the late 12th to 13th century under Philip II. The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, the majority of the works being royal and confiscated church property. Because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The collection was increased under Napoleon and the museum was renamed Musée Napoléon, but after Napoleon's abdication many works seized by his armies were returned to their original owners.

The Vitruvian Man  ("The proportions of the human body according to Vitruvius"), referred in Da Vinci’s code,  is a drawing made by the Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci around 1490. It is accompanied by notes based on the work of the architect Vitruvius. The drawing, which is in ink on paper, depicts a man in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and inscribed in a circle and square. The drawing and text are sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or, less often, Proportions of Man. It is kept in the Gabinetto dei disegni e stampe of the Gallerie dell'Accademia, in Venice, Italy, under reference 228. Like most works on paper, it is displayed to the public only occasionally, so it is not part of the normal exhibition of the museum.

Now moving to the present day France ~ based on this newsitem of Mail On Line.  Louvre is to hold major Da Vinci exhibit to mark 500th anniversary of his death (did you go back to the first para to check, yes, it was 1519 !) .. .. the news is Italy is refusing to lend three major Leonardo da Vinci artworks to France for an exhibition to mark the 500th anniversary of the artist's death.

The Louvre, in Paris, is due to hold the largest show of Da Vinci's work for seven years when their exhibition opens in autumn this year. But the show could be without Da Vinci's Baptism of Christ, Annunciation and Adoration of the Magi after Florence's Uffizi Galleries refused to hand them over. The works, which are kept at the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, were due to feature in the  show marking 500 years since the artist's death.  Italy's junior culture minister, a member of the anti-migrant League party, said lending the works would sideline their country, adding: 'Leonardo was Italian’.  Lucia Borgonzoni, an Italian culture minister and senator for the anti-migrant League, said lending the works would 'put Italy on the margins of a major cultural event.'  'The 500th anniversary also exists for Italy, and Leonardo was Italian,' she said.

Leonardo - a towering figure of the Renaissance period who worked as an inventor, mathematician, sculptor and architect, as well as an artist - was born in Florence but died in the Loire Valley, in France. Eike Schmidt, director of the Uffizi Galleries, said the three Leonardo works are considered too fragile to travel - and pointed out that the Louvre has a policy of never lending the Mona Lisa. The row escalated as Luigi di Maio, Italy's Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Eurosceptic Five Star Movement, told French yellow jacket protesters 'don't give up as they called for Emmanuel Macron  to leave office. ' Di Maio said Italy had been following their struggle 'from the day you first appeared' and urged them to continue.

The Louvre was due to hold its exhibition in autumn this year and billed it as the biggest showing of the artist's work since London's National Gallery in 2011.. .. The yellow jacket protests began as a demonstration over fuel duty rises, but have since expanded into anti-establishment rallies.  Macron is viewed among protesters as a President of the rich and they are calling for him to leave office.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

10^th Jan 2019.