Louvre blockbuster: Honouring Leonardo da Vinci 500 years on

PARIS: A blockbuster retrospective of Leonardo da Vinci opens Thursday at the Louvre museum to mark 500 years since the death of the Renaissance master in the historic town of Amboise, France.

Nearly 200,000 people have already reserved their place in line for the exhibition, the biggest ever organised to showcase the Tuscan polymath’s indelible contributions to humanity — with an emphasis on his painting.

A decade in the planning, the show simply titled Leonardo da Vinci groups 162 works, including 24 drawings loaned by Queen Elizabeth II of Britain from the Royal Collection.

Salvator Mundi has not been seen in public since it was sold for a record 450 million dollars at Christie’s in 2017. Photo: AFP

The British Museum, the Hermitage of Saint Petersburg and the Vatican have also contributed, as well as, of course, Italy — after a sometimes acrimonious tug-of-war between Rome and Paris over the loans.

The exhibition in the Hall Napoleon features 11 of the 20 paintings definitively attributed to the Renaissance master, as well as drawings, manuscripts, sculptures and other objets d’art.

The show walks the visitor through the timeline of the master’s peripatetic life under the tutelage of dukes, princes and kings, from Florence to Milan, Venice and Rome, and finally France, where he spent the last three years of his life.

Two notable no-shows — for different reasons

Two works are missing from the show, starting with the Mona Lisa.

The blockbuster exhibition in the Hall Napoleon features 11 of the 20 paintings definitively attributed to the Renaissance master, as well as drawings, manuscripts, sculptures and other objects. Photo: AFP

Organisers decided the world’s most famous painting should remain in the Louvre’s Salle des Etats — its normal home — to help avoid overcrowding.

As it is, the masterpiece attracts nearly 30,000 people a day.

The Mona Lisa’s ineffable smile will however beguile visitors in a virtual reality experience at the end of the Leonardo show, which runs until February 24.

The other notable no-show is the Salvator Mundi, the work that became the most expensive painting ever sold when it fetched $450 million (400 million euros) at a Christie’s auction in 2017.

Mystery now surrounds the painting — whose authenticity is disputed by some experts — as it has not been seen in public ever since the stunning sale.

Officially, it was to be displayed at the Louvre Abu Dhabi but an unveiling set for September 2018 was inexplicably postponed. The Louvre said the museum’s request to borrow the work is still pending.