The Yager Museum of Art & Culture at Hartwick College presents The Inventions of Leonardo daVinci, on view through Friday, January 27, 2012.
“The Inventions of Leonardo daVinci” features 16 contemporary models of mechanical devices conceived and designed by Renaissance artist and inventor Leonardo daVinci. The fully operable models in the exhibition have been constructed from daVinci’s own drawings, which were recorded in notebooks until his death in 1519. DaVinci created drawings of such precise accuracy that these models could be constructed from his drawings 500 years after they were originally created. Visitors to this interpretive exhibition are encouraged to explore concepts of invention, flight, machines, and scientific observation through working models of daVinci’s inventions.
DaVinci’s artistic eye and love of scientific inquiry prompted him to study the natural world and to apply the principles that he observed in nature to his inventions such as the Flying Machine, inspired by the wing structure of a bird. Through models such as the Hydraulic Screw that prefigures the water turbine, and the Variable Speed Drive, which is similar to the transmission of the modern automobile, the exhibition demonstrates how daVinci’s drawings contain the guiding principles of many devices that revolutionized society and industry nearly four centuries later.
“The Inventions of Leonardo daVinci” was originally developed by the IBM Corporation and is now circulated by The Exhibition Alliance, Inc., Hamilton, NY. The exhibition is co-sponsored by The Hartwick College 2011-2012 “Human Question” Campus Theme.
The Yager Museum is open from noon to 4:30 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. The Exhibition is free and open to the public. For more information, call 607-431-4480. www.hartwick.edu
