Painting +puzzle +compulsory 'Da Vinci' ref. Glasgow artist Frank McNab Previously has an interesting series of paintings on display in an exhibition at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. Running until the end of October the paintings have the common theme of 'Libraries in the Community" and are a celebration of both the buildings themselves and their patrons. Check out the link not just for the obvious quality of the works on display but also to see if YOU can be the one to solve the riddle hidden within the paintings themselves.
posted by Wrick on Aug 28, 2009 - 2 comments

523 years after his original drawing, DaVinci's parachute design is proven to actually work. There was an earlier attempt, but apparently the wooden frame specified by DaVinci likely would have seriously maimed the jumper. Perhaps not entirely coincidentally, the 2008 jump was made from a helicopter - another one of DaVinci's concepts.
posted by webhund on Apr 28, 2008 - 15 comments

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 on Jun 10, 2007 - 9 comments

Leonardo comes to life. A stunning collection of short animations based on Leonardo da Vinci's sketchbooks. Watch a man running, a human heart beating, a tank moving, a bird flying, or a geometrical model rotating. Then visit the Universal Leonardo website to find out more about the man himself.
posted by verstegan on Oct 12, 2006 - 14 comments

I know who brought Leonardo's greatest drawings to Britain. I may not be a Harvard professor of religious symbology or know much about the bloodline of the Magdalene, but I do enjoy a mystery and so I set out to solve this one. And I succeeded. Final proof is elusive, always, but in this case the circumstantial evidence is so overwhelming, I think I've got my man."
posted by Len on Aug 30, 2006 - 6 comments

Rough draft or a copy made by a Da Vinci acolyte? A painting entitled, "La Gioconda" which bears a striking resemblence to this one hangs in the distinctly non-Parisian Portland Museum of Art (Portland, Maine). Technical studies indicate that it was painted in 1510 (3-7 years after the orignal Mona Lisa). The Portland museum recently decided to re-display the painting [NB: link to public radio story] (having last hauled it out of the basement when the book came out).
posted by scblackman on Jun 3, 2006 - 17 comments

We know you can read Pepys diaries a page a day online. (Previous Mefi post here.) But there are more. Kafka's Diaries. W.N.P Barbellion's diaries (The Journal of a Disappointed Man, highly recommended.) The Diary of a Nobody (the page a day seems to be down, but the whole Punch series is here.) The Notebooks of Da Vinci. Henry David Thoreau, day by day. Fibroid Sludge, the cartoon diary of Irven Spence. A previous MeFi post on Martha Ballard's historical diary. And of course, that diary of one day, Ulysses, a page a day.
posted by OmieWise on Aug 26, 2005 - 11 comments

Da Vinci's workshop discovered - Florence. Also CTV link here.
posted by yoga on Jan 27, 2005 - 12 comments

Famous for Being Famous - is an article on the artist, Giotto, argued to be among the first "celebrities." Giotto studied with the painter Cimabue and is said to have been an early influence on Leonardo da Vinci. Although not currently as well-known as Michaelangelo, for instance, Giotto's fame in his day was great, as evidenced by writings by Dante and Boccaccio.
posted by grapefruitmoon on Dec 5, 2004 - 5 comments

Ulysses a page a day and the Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci a page a day. Fire up your favorite newsreader or sign up for Bloglines and get down to some hardcore retro-feedin'!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken on Jun 24, 2004 - 29 comments

The strange synchronicity of The Last Breakfast. Two paintings, created by two different artists, in two different countries, four years apart, but with striking similarities. (via sdw)
posted by Ufez Jones on Mar 18, 2004 - 22 comments

The Met Museum has an online gallery exploring the work of Da Vinci. It allows you to zoom in and out on specific parts of a work thus enabling minute exploration. It's stuff like this that makes the web indispensable.
posted by Fat Buddha on Jan 30, 2003 - 6 comments

Weirdo Leonardo "This web site is about the stranger artworks and writings of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and includes ideas and images that may disturb." Michelangelo is reported to have said of Leonardo that "He cannot create, only imagine." If so, what an imagination! The grotesque and anatomical figures. The magnificent machines.
posted by vacapinta on May 16, 2002 - 12 comments

Leonardo's Bridge became a reality, with the construction of the 100 meter bridge spanning the E-18 in the township of Ås, east of Oslo. The design of the bridge makes modern bridges seem old in comparison. It seems that many of DaVinci's 500 year old ideas are coming to fruition.
posted by dancu on Nov 1, 2001 - 10 comments

Is this an authentic Leonardo Da Vinci painting for sale on eBay? Has anyone even seen this painting that is claimed to have been done by Leonardo Da Vinci before? It looks suspicous to me: the seller does not have a rating and their website looks like it was made by a kindergardner. Is this another eBay scam or something of value?
posted by crog on May 17, 2001 - 14 comments

Gee, stupid me. I thought it was a pretty good statue, myself. Seems someone with a laser beam and time on his hands has worked out that the statue of David squints. Wow. Thanks a lot, mister! I can rest a lot easier knowing that. Why, I might have been misled into believing it was some kind of masterpiece or something. What, he couldn't find anything more useless to do with his sabbatical?
posted by Ezrael on Jun 9, 2000 - 11 comments