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Leonardo
- the BBC's first major biography of Leonardo da Vinci
The
extraordinary story, amazing vision and unfulfilled dreams of Renaissance
artist Leonardo da Vinci are brought to life in a revealing, new
three-part series for BBC ONE.
Press
pack available
Leonardo
explores how the man behind some of the most famous paintings in
the world was also an engineering genius, anatomical scientist and
inventor of wonderful machines hundreds of years
ahead of their time.
Presented
by Alan Yentob, Leonardo is the BBC's first major biography of Leonardo
da Vinci and marks the 500th anniversary of the painting of the
Mona Lisa, which Leonardo began in 1503.
The
films bring together his public face and the private thoughts, illustrations
and ideas explored in his notebooks, to paint a revealing portrait
of the artist's passion for knowledge, which both inspired and obsessed
him throughout his career.
The
notebooks reveal a man with an incredible eye and hunger to understand
the workings of the natural world, which he was also desperate to
mimic in machinery.
Filmed
across Italy and featuring actor Mark Rylance in the role of Leonardo,
the series uses Leonardo's own writings to re-enact the story of
his life and work.
Leonardo's
inventions - a parachute, hang-glider, tank, underwater diving suit
and robot - are built and put to the test for the first time, 500
years after he designed them.
Artist
Leo Stevenson demonstrates some of Leonardo's many novel painting
techniques, and experts in Renaissance art
offer their views on his creative genius.
But
the brilliance of this ultimate Renaissance man was flawed: scandals
dogged his private life; his devotion to his often bizarre experiments
meant commissions were left unfinished; and a rivalry with fellow
artist Michelangelo undermined his work.
An
interactive website, giving viewers a chance to build their own
Leonardo machines, will be available through BBCi at www.bbc.co.uk/leonardo.
Leonardo,
a BBC co-production with Discovery for BBC ONE, is produced by Sarah
Aspinall,Tim Dunn and Nick Rossiter, and the executive producer
is Michael Mosley.
Notes
to Editors
The
Leonardo press pack below is in pdf
format, viewable with Adobe Acrobat, which can be obtained free
here.
Leonardo
press pack (606KB)
All the
BBC's digital services are now available on Freeview,
the new free-to-view digital terrestrial television service, as well
as on satellite and cable.
Freeview
offers the BBC's eight television channels, interactive services
from BBCi, as well as 11 BBC radio networks.
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