Leonardo da Vinci is celebrated as the inventor of extraordinary machines and mechanical devices that entered the common heritage of technical culture only several centuries after his death.

However, a close examination of the history of technology from the late fourteenth century to the end of the fifteenth century reveals that the "Leonardo phenomenon" was the logical outcome of a development of engineering and technical skills to which other talented figures contributed as well.

During Renaissance times, there was no division between art and science, as there is today. The unity of art and science echoes in the work of today’s leading innovators.

Leonardo: 500 Years Into the Future represents the remarkable achievements of fifteenth century artist-engineers - Filippo Brunelleschi, The Sienese Engineers, and Leonardo da Vinci - and exemplifies the pivotal unity of art, technology and science.

This exhibition brings together over 200 artifacts, including drawings, sculptures and life-size models of the art, architectural projects, machines and mechanisms crafted from the original notebooks of the Renaissance artist-engineers. Didactic tools, including multi-media stations with interactive functions, put the machines and achievements of Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance artist-engineers into modern day context.

Get a glimpse inside the mind of one of the world's most innovative thinkers. Leonardo da Vinci is the epitome of the Renaissance man - most famous for his paintings yet also renowned as a scientist, engineer and inventor. Leonardo expressed his insights through the medium of drawing: drawing was a form of communication and experimentation.

Drawings about his ideas and experiments depict the universal laws of equilibrium, geometric proportion and mechanical principles of movement that govern all of man and nature. The exhibition showcases how Leonardo's drawings blur the boundary between art and science and provide insight into how he thought.

Leonardo da Vinci embraced art, technology and science, not as separate from one another, but as a whole. His imagination and ideas have inspired generations of scientists, artists and inventors.


Highlights of the Exhibit

Over 30,000 sq ft with over 200 artifacts
  • The exhibit offers many exciting educational opportunities as it represents the most current research on Leonardo and other Renaissance artist-engineers: Filippo Brunelleschi, the Sienese engineers - Taccola and Francesco di Giorgio.
  • More than one hundred life-size, interactive, working or scale models crafted from the original notebooks of Leonardo and his contemporaries and reconstructed by art restorers and artisans.
  • Art, architectural projects, machines and mechanisms, anatomy, aviation and lots more!
  • Participate in hands-on design challenges in The Tech's galleries based on Leonardo's engineering, scientific and art principles.
  • Three films illustrating recent discoveries in Leonardo's drawings and painting as well as exciting stories of some of his major projects such as the conception and production of the Sforza Horse.
  • Two original Renaissance paintings by Leonardo's disciples on loan from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
  • Models of modern inventions on loan from Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman highlight the parallels between the Renaissance and Silicon Valley today.
  • Multi-media presentations that reproduce the notebooks and drawings for you to get a close-up view of these incredible artist-engineers.
  • Teachers, ask about our special labs created just for school groups (extra fee applies).
  • Plus don't miss Adrenaline Rush, the IMAX film that documents the efforts of an Oxford University research team to bring to life and test Leonardo's parachute.
  • All exhibits are appropriate for all ages.
Emerge with a new image of the Renaissance and a deeper and richer understanding of its most famous Genius.