manga review of da Vinci's "Annunciation"

June 10, 2007 9:20 AM

Painter and comic artist Jun-Pierre Shiozawa visited the Tokyo National Museum recently to view da Vinci's Annunciata which created protests in Italy when the Uffizi Gallery lent this artwork to Japan. Shiozawa then created a fantastic "manga review" of the experience for Tokyo Art Beat's TABlog. You can see the steps Shiozawa made to create his manga review on Shiozawa's Flickr account or blog.
posted by gen (9 comments total)

I started reading it backwards because the post said 'manga', and then I realized that the text made no sense. :S
posted by Memo at 9:49 AM on June 10, 2007

In the manga, Shiozawa mentions Leonardo's never realized 7 meter high bronze equestian sculpture. Interestingly, you can go see a modern recreation of this sculpture in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at the Fred Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. It's pretty impressive.
posted by keep_evolving at 9:52 AM on June 10, 2007

Jun-Pierre and I both attended the Aegean Center (tho a few years apart) and before I recognized his name I was immediately drawn back to my memory of seeing The Annunciation in the Uffizi with the school two years ago.

It was an intensely overwhelming experience. Call it spiritual or what you will, but I was left breathless and swooning. "The building looks like a hyperreal photograph!" I couldn't get over it. I had seen two other Da Vinci paintings in person before, and a few studies, but nothing has ever matched how I felt seeing this painting up close. I spent ages just studying each leaf of all the plants in the foreground. It's an incredible work.
posted by annathea at 11:08 AM on June 10, 2007

Wow, great post. It plows through so many great resources in just a few sentences. The manga review is a neat view into the museum experience.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 12:06 PM on June 10, 2007

I saw the da Vinci exhibit in Tokyo a few weeks ago. The significance of Annunciata didn't really hit me, but the overall exhibit was amazing.
posted by spec80 at 1:09 PM on June 10, 2007

Thanks, gen.
posted by Cranberry at 1:15 PM on June 10, 2007

Um, make that thanks gen for a well written post to interesting sites.
posted by Cranberry at 1:16 PM on June 10, 2007

the comic was really excellent. thanks.
posted by es_de_bah at 2:03 PM on June 10, 2007

This comic is nice, too. Thanks, gen; cool post.
posted by mediareport at 5:45 AM on June 11, 2007