Leonardo da Vinci's mother was named Caterina, a document discovered in the State Archives of Florence reveals that she was a Circassian princess, daughter of Prince Yakob, who ruled one of the kingdoms on the highlands of the northern Caucasus mountains: after being kidnapped, probably by the Tartars, she was enslaved and sold back to the Venetian...

Half a millennium after Leonardo da Vinci explained gravity, engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) discovered that his understanding of the phenomenon – while not entirely accurate – was centuries ahead of his time. Despite limited tools, the great Italian thinker displayed ingenious problem-solving. In an article just publi...

Leonardo Da Vinci, the Renaissance man himself, is most known for his famous Mona Lisa, whose smile continues to haunt and confuse those who encounter it. However, Da Vinci's other highly-regarded painting, The Last Supper, hints at his lesser-known topic of interest: Food. Painting the scene of Jesus' last meal before his crucifixion, Da Vinci mad...

Time is running out to see “Da Vinci: The Exhibition,” which runs through Jan. 8 on the third floor of Reading Public Museum in Reading, PA. This exhibition follows the Renaissance master, Leonardo da Vinci, on a journey of innovation, creativity, science and wonder amid beautiful scenes of the Italian countryside. Developed by Aurea Exhibitions an...

Lecture by Rocky Ruggiero. Given at the Flint Institute of Art on December 7, 2022. This presentation will explore the evolution of the Last Supper in Italian art, beginning with early Christian images through to the late Renaissance, including one of the world’s most famous works of art: Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. Dr. Rocky Ruggiero has...

December 2, 2022 | 5 PM & Leonardo Award Ceremony | 7 PM. Refreshments will follow. In-person and virtual presentation by Martin Kemp. The Commonwealth Club of California - 110 The Embarcadero - Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco. Five centuries after his death, Leonardo Da Vinci is attracting more attention for his art, his science and his mec...

Appearing at the Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs on October 14th is Cordâme. The wonderfully unique group, centering around the music of composer Jean Félix Mailloux, will be presenting their latest work, Da Vinci Inventions. Always in the process of reinventing his musical language, composer Jean Félix Mailloux now transports us in...

Leonardo da Vinci is possibly, along with Michelangelo and Dante, the most famous name in Italian art. His ingenuity didn’t only give us some of the most iconic paintings in the world – the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, just to mention the, perhaps, most famous of them all – but also creative inventions and incredible urbanistic solutions – the ne...

“Yo, Mona Lisa, could I get a date on Friday?” sang Wyclef Jean on the Fugees’ debut album, in 1994. Around half a century earlier, Nat King Cole had crooned about Mona Lisa as the lady with the mystic smile in an Oscar-winning song. Fast-forward to 2018, when power couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z punctuated their music video filmed in the Louvre with vie...

How could a man who stole one of the most famous paintings in the world still be a mystery more than 100 years later? It was the question that South Philly filmmakers Joe Medeiros and Justine Mestichelli Medeiros promised to answer after years of extensive research and interviews. They knew who did it. That was the easy part. But the couple, who no...