The renowned documentary filmmaker Ken Burns stopped by the National Press Club earlier this week with co-directors Sarah Burns and David McMahon to preview their latest work, a new film on the life of Leonardo da Vinci. The four-hour documentary, a departure for Burns, who typically focuses on America and American subjects, will air on PBS over two nights on Nov. 18 and 19.

While there has been no shortage of film treatments and books about da Vinci, this latest production from Burns’s Florentine Films brings an almost tactile sense of detail to this intimate portrait of a remarkable life in the Italian Renaissance.