More than Mona Lisa: Louvre's Leonardo da Vinci is a blockbuster with brains

Louvre, Paris
From a windmill-punk helicopter to a VR Mona Lisa that the artist himself would have loved, this show blows away his old-master reputation to present a relentlessly modern mind

At first sight, the Louvre’s grand Leonardo da Vinci exhibition, the most keenly awaited event of his 500th anniversary year, might look like a wasted opportunity. Disputes with Italian museums – and a general resistance to letting the gallery that happens to own the Mona Lisa appoint itself Leonardo Central – mean there are fewer paintings here than in the blockbuster show at the National Gallery in 2011. But you soon realise this is no mistake – or it’s a very happy one. This is the great Leonardo show of our time because it reveals his true identity as a scientist, inventor, engineer and infinitely curious observer of life. It’s a blockbuster with a brain that reveals why we will never tire of the genius who dreamed of our future, five centuries ago.

The greatest Leonardo work that France owns is not the Mona Lisa. It’s a medium-sized notebook known as Manuscrit B that’s been lent by the Institut de France. It is displayed open on a double spread that had me inwardly whooping with delight. You go, Leonardo! On the left hand page, there’s a design for a helicopter that works like a giant screw drilling upward through the air, drawn precisely in firm ink lines. Above is a rapid sketch of what looks like a flying saucer but is an armoured car that he suggested might be fun for jousting.

Leonardo da Vinci is at the Louvre, Paris, from 24 October to 24 February.

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