• The Making of Technique in the Arts: Concepts and Practice from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century

    The Making of Technique in the Arts: Concepts and Practice from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century

    10/31/2017

    Andrea Bernardoni participated with a paper titled From the body to the word: language analogies in the 15th-16th Centuries practical Knowledge, at the workshop organized by the University of Utrecht, "The Making of Technique in the Art" on 26 and 27 October 2017. The workshop is part of the Arthecne project (http://artechne.wp.hum.uu.nl/) whose purpose is to create a database and a semantic map of the recipes and techniques invented and developed by the craftsmen over the centuries.

  • Drawings, models, architecture, art history: historical study and computerized visualization in the era of digital humanities

    Drawings, models, architecture, art history: historical study and computerized visualization in the era of digital humanities

    10/16/2017

    Alexander Neuwahl participated for ArtesMechanicae at the seminar organized by the Doctoral School in Architecture of Florence, the Sorbonne and the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, the CNRS of Marseille and the Biblioteca Leonardiana of Vinci. Following Paris in November 2015, Marseilles in June 2016, and Bologna on 12 and 13 September 2016, the seminar was the last stage of a common path of several European University researchers focusing on reading, studying, interpretatating - and therefore the 'communication' of the contents - of architectural drawings using various computer techniques, especially those based on 3D models, with a focus on the Italian Renaissance but not only. Based on a dialogue between architectural historians and specialists in the most innovative technologies, the themes of modelization, visualization and the use of digital interfaces have been the focus of this project. While the first seminar (Paris) highlighted the specific skills laying behind this interdisciplinary work, the second (Marseille) focused on significant methodology issues when developing new approaches within a common standard framework. In the third event (Bologna) specific cases were analyzed, focusing on the dialogue between Renaissance drawings and new computer technologies, with the aim of highlighting original experiences and possible convergence points. Starting from the experiences carried out around the Leonardo da Vinci graphic corpus, this further step was intended to propose a comparison between the various 'knowledges' that have been involved in these themes and at the same time to create a moment of encounter between doctorates - of different training and provenance - and the professionals which deal with the history of art and architecture, digital humanities, 3D Reconstruction, interface design, experience design, museology, virtual and augmented reality. This fourth seminar, held in Florence (DIDA) and in Vinci (Biblioteca Leonardiana), gave the opportunity to investigate on the issues of the creation and use of digital content both at the process of 'building' and at the level of museum design . From this point of view, the experiences of the Leonardian Museum of Vinci and the CNRS of Marseilles are of great interest and they represent case studies of absolute importance and originality in the European landscape.

  • Science and Engineering in Islamic Heritage

    Science and Engineering in Islamic Heritage

    03/18/2017

    Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation – Centre for the Study of Islamic Manuscripts, and the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC), organize a two days symposium entitled “Science and Engineering in the Islamic Heritage" (London,  House of Lord, Westminister 03-17 - Al-Furqan foundation 03-18). Andrea Bernardoni for Artes mechanicae presented a paper titled "Traces and Connection with Muslim Scientific Heritage in Leonardo Da Vinci Manuscripts". Leonardo studied and developed topics, in many field of engineering, arts and science, for which is possible find more or less evident Arabian tradition echoes. The Presentation highlights and analyses the evidences of Leonardo involvement with Arab authors.

     

  • Seminar at the University of Strasbourg

    Seminar at the University of Strasbourg

    02/21/2017

    As part of the series of seminars "visualization des savoirs scientifiques et techniques", organized by Fanny Kieffer, Isabelle Laboulais, Martial Guédron and Olivier Poncer at the University of Strasbourg, Alexander Neuwahl participated for ArtesMechanicae with a talk entitled "Portraits de machines - Léonard de Vinci et les ingénieurs de la Renaissance". In an excursus of the first late-medieval and Renaissance artists-architects-engineers, a picture was painted of the main evolutionary lineages of representation modes in the field of technology, which over the centuries have led to the modern conventions of technical drawing. A cue was also taken from the work of Romano Nanni published in the book "Leonardo and the mechanical arts" (Skira, 2013).
    http://www.museoleonardiano.it/ita/museo/pubblicazioni-del-museo
    http://www.skira.net/books/leonardo-e-le-arti-meccaniche.

    The recording of the talk is available at the address http://www.hear.fr/sites/didactiquevisuelle/portraits-de-machines/

  • Evening Lecture Around Leonardo in St. Peter's Parish in Gropina

    Evening Lecture Around Leonardo in St. Peter's Parish in Gropina

    08/29/2016

    In the very impressive scenery of the Gropina Romanesque parish in the village of Loro Ciuffenna (AR) Andrea Bernardoni and Marco Versiero had a talk entitled Leonardo artist and engineer. They contextualized the main artistic and engineering events in Leonardo's career under the light of most recent historiographical contributions prepared for the exhibition Leonardo Vinci 1452-1519 held at the Palazzo Reale in Milan from April 16 to July 19, 2015.

  • Ateliers du Campus Condorcet (Paris) - 7 giugno 2016 - "La maquette, so what? "

    Ateliers du Campus Condorcet (Paris) - 7 giugno 2016 - "La maquette, so what? "

    06/10/2016

    The 7th of june 2016 the third session of hte seminars program 2015-2016 of the Campus Condorcet (Paris) titled "La reconstitution - processus heuristique et/ou objet de médiation ?", in collaboration with the Centre Alexandre Koyré (CNRS-EHESS-MNHN), SAPRAT (EPHE), ILJ-CEDRIC (Cnam), CTHS (Ecole Nationale des Chartes), CEMS (CNRS-EHESS), IDHES (Université d’Evry-Val d’Essonne & Université de Paris 8), SPHERE (CNRS-Paris7), and the Direction générale des patrimoines (DGP/DPRPS). ArtesMechanicae participated to the session, titled "La maquette, so what ?", with the talk "The analysis of ancient machines through the integration of traditional knowledge and modern techniques/ L'analyse des machines anciennes par l'intégration des connaissances traditionnelles et les techniques modernes".

  • International Symposium on Al-Jazary. The Bright Age Shown as Dark, 13-14 May, Mardin University

    International Symposium on Al-Jazary. The Bright Age Shown as Dark, 13-14 May, Mardin University

    05/27/2016

    The Artuklu University of Mardin in Turkey organized an international symposium on Al-Jazari, arab scientist and engineer. Along two days the machines drawn in The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices (Al-Jami 'Bayna' l-'ilm wa-'l-'amal al-Nafi 'fi sinat'at al-hiyal) were analysed and historically contestualized. Artes Mechanicae presented a paper titled Leonardo and mechanics in the Renaissance, in which Andrea Bernardoni analyzed some Leonardo's engineering aspect and Leonardo's projects for the Sultan Bayazid II.

  • Presentation of the Book "Leonardo e l’Arno" at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan

    Presentation of the Book "Leonardo e l’Arno" at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan

    10/20/2015

    The book has been realized with the contribution of Acque SpA and Acea, under the patronage of the Comune di Vinci. It contains essays in which the theme of water is analyzed, a subject which engaged Leonardo for a long time. It describes an interdisciplinary path from nature studies to physical and engineering experimentation on hydraulics problems.

    The volume contains the essay by Andrea Bernardoni and Alexander Neuwahl dedicated to the technology for canals excavation in which the genesis of the "crane digger" designed in 4r sheet of the Codex Atlanticus is analyzed.

    List of the essays 

    L’Arno come Ercole
    Carlo Pedretti

    Uno schizzo per l’Arno nel Codice sul volo degli uccelli. La rappresentazione dell’acqua e del vento
    Paola Salvi

    “Ora tu ài a notare a livello dell’acqua”. Eredità, originalità e questioni irrisolte nelle riflessioni vinciane sul peso dell’acqua
    Paolo Cavagnero

    Le rocce e i “nichi” di Leonardo
    Elisabetta Cioppi, Stefano Dominici

    L’elemento acqua nei disegni cosmografici e cartografici di Leonardo
    Andrea Cantile

    Leonardo da Vinci e il paesaggio medievale del Valdarno. Aspetti insediativi e controllo del territorio in margine a una carta di Windsor
    Andrea Vanni Desideri

    Regimare le acque e navigare il fiume. Il basso corso dell’Arno fra Medioevo ed Età Moderna
    Emanuela Ferretti, Davide Turrini

    Brunelleschi e Leonardo, l’acqua e l’assedio
    Paola Benigni, Pietro Ruschi

    Automatizzare lo scavo: genesi di una “gru scavatrice” del Codice Atlantico
    Andrea Bernardoni, Alexander Neuwahl

    Le acque e l’Arno. Dai disegni di Leonardo alla Sala delle Acque del Museo Leonardiano
    Roberta Barsanti 

  • ArtesMechanicae's models at Louvre Museum in Paris

    ArtesMechanicae's models at Louvre Museum in Paris

    09/15/2015

    Artes Mechanicae presents two flying machines models along with some coming from the Museo Leonardiano in Vinci at the Louvre Auditorium in the framework of the lecture series "24h avec Lèonard de Vinci" on 19 and 20 september 2015.

    The conference held by Professor Pascal Brioist of the University of Tours, dedicated to the theme of flight, will focus on the new interpretations by ArtesMechanicae of the glider and the parachute designed by Leonardo.

     

    http://www.louvre.fr/progtems/24h-avec%E2%80%A6-leonard-de-vinci

  • Marignan 1515/2015

    Marignan 1515/2015

    07/20/2015

    Marignan2015 is the reconstruction of a Court celebration that took place in 1518 to celebrate the victory of Marignan and the king François 1st in 1515. The show will bring together about five hundred of extras in the Leonardo da Vinci's Parc - Clos Lucé in Amboise and in Beauvais park in Romorantin in the last weekend of july 2015. For the event ArtesMechanicae designed the stage sets, including the fortress, a building with an over 100 square meters facade.

    More info at http://www.marignan2015.com

  • Replica of the compound microscope by Eustachio Divini preserved at the Museum for History of Physics of Padua University

    Replica of the compound microscope by Eustachio Divini preserved at the Museum for History of Physics of Padua University

    07/15/2015

    The ArtesMechanicae laboratories along with Guido Giannini, historic craftsman of Piazza Pitti in Florence, realized a replica of the compound microscope made in the Eustachio Divini’s workshop in 1671, the only one remaining of its production. Through a philological analysis it was tried to understand the techniques and original materials employed  for building the instrument. As there are no strict criteria for the construction of replicas, after careful museological considerations carried out with the curators of the Museo Galileo in Florence and the Museum for History of Physics of Padua University aimed at the preservation of the original, it was decided to build the internal structure of the instrument not with cardboard, as in the original, but with 3D printed synthetic material and to reconstruct the texture and surface decoration "to the new" with no signs of wear.

    Here more details on the microscope.

  • Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519: il disegno del mondo

    Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519: il disegno del mondo

    04/16/2015

    Milan, Palazzo Reale, 16 April – 19 July 2015

    The exhibition is accompanied by a superb catalogue, edited by Pietro C. Marani and Maria Teresa Fiorio (who both produced also some invaluable introductory texts, concerning, respectively, Leonardo’s dealings with the antique and his engagement with sculpture practice) and published by Skira. Its publication was made possible thanks to the contributions of a group of international scholars: Marzia Faietti (Uffizi) and Carmen C. Bambach (Metropolitan Museum of Art) investigate Leonardo’s Florentine drawing practice; Andrea Bernardoni (Museo Galileo, Artes Mechanicae) discusses the technical aspects of Leonardo’s planned equestrian monuments; Martin Clayton (Royal Library, Windsor) examines the physiological foundations of Leonardo’s representation of the “moti mentali”; Paolo Galluzzi (Museo Galileo) and Claudio Giorgione (Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia “Leonardo da Vinci”, Milan) explore the conceptualization of his mechanical devices; Edoardo Villata (Università Cattolica, Milan) considers Leonardo’s visionary approach to the projects of flying and walking underwater; Richard Schofield (Università IUAV, Venice) evaluates the conjunction of reality and utopia in the architectural and townplanning studies; Martin Kemp (University of Oxford) traces a conceptual unity in Leonardo’s different languages; Frank Fehrenbach (Harvard University, Cambridge) discusses his study of water movements; Rodolfo Maffeis (Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence) and Marco Versiero (Scuola Normale Superiore - Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane, Florence-Naples) detail the scientific approach and the literary inspiration of Leonardo’s late cosmology and naturalism; Furio Rinaldi (Metropolitan Museum) and Juliana Barone (University of London) consider Leonardo’s pictorial and intellectual legacy; Roberto Paolo Ciardi (Accademia dei Lincei, Rome) offers some interesting examples of Leonardo’s posthumous myth. In compiling the huge corpus of the catalogue entries, these scholars were assisted by other experts and/or curators/keepers from all over the world.

  • LV Lettura Vinciana

    LV Lettura Vinciana

    04/11/2015

    Biblioteca Leonardiana, Vinci, 11 April 2015

    On 11 April, Andrea Bernardoni offered the 55th Lettura Vinciana, in Vinci, on ‘Del colpo cagion del foco” (Codice Atlantico, f. 973v). Un dialogo tra filosofia naturale ed arti meccaniche nei manoscritti di Leonardo’, (A dialogue between natural philosophy and mechanical arts in the manuscripts of Leonardo).

  • Berlin - Renaissance Society of America

    Berlin - Renaissance Society of America

    03/26/2015

    Renaissance Society of America Conference
    Berlin, 26-28 March 2015

    Leonardo Studies III: Science

    Talk by Andrea Bernardoni (Museo Galileo, ArtesMechanicae): “La rota che si muove di moto circonvolubile ventilante”

  • Capolavori in dettaglio – Leonardo, Raffaello, Caravaggio

    Capolavori in dettaglio – Leonardo, Raffaello, Caravaggio

    07/22/2014

    Exhibition in Naples, from 22 July to 10 October 2014

    ArtesMechanicae realized the section devoted to Leonardo's machines in the exhibition "Capolavori in dettaglio (Masterpieces in detail) – Leonardo, Raffaello, Caravaggio" hosted at the Convent of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples and in the Capodimenote Museum from 22 July to 10 October 2014, organized by the Pietrasanta Association, under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic, in collaboraztion with Rai Radiotelevisione Italiana, Soprintendenza speciale per il Patrimonio storico, artistico ed etnoantropologico e per il Polo museale della città di Napoli, Naples City Council - Culture and Tourism Department.

    The section is divided into four themes:

    1. The cranes of the yard of Brunelleschi for the dome of the cathedral of Florence
    2. Machines for channels digging
    3. Waterways and their maintenance
    4. The flight.

    Each section presents a machine model and a 3D video animation.

  • Artes Mechanicae on CareAboutCulture

    Artes Mechanicae on CareAboutCulture

    03/11/2014

    CareAboutCulture, the well known blog by Anna d'Amico, publishes an interview in which AMIEX and Artes Mechanicae are introduced and explained to the public. One of the themes addressed during the interview is Genio (geniogame.com), the game that Pietro Polsinelli launched on kickstarter at the end of March in collaboration with Artes Mechanicae. The scientific toys of Leonardo Da Vinci recreated by Artes Mechanicae are some among the rewards for the pledgers. 

  • Conservative Restoration of a Historical Model

    Conservative Restoration of a Historical Model

    05/27/2013

    ArtesMechanicae’s workshops have restored the escapement rocker model realised in the 1960s by the engineer Luigi Boldetti, who based his reproduction on Leonardo’s drawings, nowadays held in the Museo Leonardiano in Vinci.