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Leonardo: The Works review – magnificent tour of the masterpieces

From Florence to London, Krakow to St Petersburg, galleries show off their prized paintings in this impressive, authoritative documentary

The prolific Exhibitions on Screen strand takes a step away from its normal practice of surveying specific gallery spaces by assembling a virtual exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s paintings in a way no art gallery – not even the Louvre (currently showing seven) – can manage.

The result is undeniably impressive: a whistle-stop tour of masterpieces that hops from one Leonardo venue to another. London’s National Gallery shows off its Virgin of the Rocks, the Uffizi in Florence its Annunciation, St Petersburg’s Hermitage its Benois Madonna, the National museum in Krakow’s Lady With an Ermine. (A nice touch: the local curators get to wax lyrical about their particular Leonardo.) Of course, viewing a painting through the documentary lens is never quite the same, but the cumulative effect of seeing one masterwork after another roll across the screen is amazing.

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/31R1HE1
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