It would be time to end the useless nationalist whining about who celebrates Leonardo better between Italy and France

It is to be hoped that, as soon as the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death are over, all the tiresome, cloying, tedious and pointless controversies that have been accompanying the event for months and that, basically, always end up being reduced to a demented nationalist contention between Italy and France, with the ever-present and querulous sovereignist refrain that the genius would be more worthily celebrated on the other side of the Alps, may also come to an end at the same time. And since the visit of President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella last May 2 to Amboise, the place where the painter disappeared in 1519 and where France organized a ceremony in memory of the great artist, has provided an invaluable assist to our own chauvinists, immediately ready to hurl their strides against the head of state guilty of having paid homage to Leonardo in a foreign land (and one would wonder where the commemoration should have been held on the day of the anniversary, if not in the place where the genius died), it is necessary to let those who would like the “great exhibition on Leonardo” to be organized in Italy know how things stand.

Meanwhile, a necessary premise: Italy already had the “great exhibition” on Leonardo four years ago. It was a monographic exhibition at the Palazzo Reale, a rich show (it was the largest exhibition on Leonardo ever held in Italy), with several international loans (including from France), of considerable scientific depth and capable of taking stock of the state of research on the artist at that time, and all on the basis of a fundamental assumption: to untie Leonardo from his mythical dimension and to place him in his own historical, social and cultural context. Starting from this assumption, it follows that it would be very little opportune and unwise to set up (in Italy as in France: nothing changes) a new major monographic exhibition only four years after the last one without there being scientific reasons to justify it, not least because the latest hypotheses, novelties and acquisitions on Leonardo (which are not many: among the most relevant are the reopening of the Sala delle Asse, the diagnostic investigations on the Scapigliata, whose authenticity is currently the subject of an exhibition at the Galleria Nazionale in Parma, and the revival of some much-discussed theories on Leonardo the sculptor) are the subject of individual focuses scattered around Italy. A recurrence is certainly a good spur for studies, but it should never lead to excess with useless events: the agenda of art history should be dictated by the paths and achievements of research, not by birthdays.

The fact remains that, in any case, Italy is celebrating Leonardo in a more than worthy manner, and it is to be read positively that, instead of a single major exhibition (which would entail useless expenditures of resources and energies, in addition to the unpleasant side effect of depriving several museums of their masterpieces precisely on the occasion of the 500th anniversary), we are counting several smaller ones throughout Italy. Positively because, first of all, in the history of art, the size of an exhibition does not matter: a small event can still represent a significant moment of in-depth study around an artist or a theme (and several of the Italian events on Leonardo are of no small importance), and vice versa, exhibitions that unleash dozens if not hundreds of works may not even be based on valid and scientifically grounded projects. Second, because during these Leonardo celebrations, museums are focusing on enhancing their collections-this is the most up-to-date and debated topic of discussion when it comes to exhibitions. This week the director of the Paestum Park, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, also reiterated it this week, stating in no uncertain terms how the strategy of the site he directs intends to focus on permanent collections rather than temporary exhibitions, but this is a line that is now found in the actions of many museums, from the Pinacoteca di Brera to the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, from the Galleria Estense in Modena to the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence.

This is certainly not to say that exhibitions are useless (they are one of the indispensable tools of art history, and the same museums just listed make constant use of them) or that the big event should be avoided at all costs: however, there is no doubt that, in this sense, more responsible management is needed. Certainly, on the occasion of Leonardo’s five-hundredth anniversary we are witnessing many unhelpful or repetitive events, but on these pages there has never been any mystery about the fact that a museum that dusts off its own jewels, perhaps enriching the event with a few but targeted and sensible loans, is to be preferred over an institution that orders a bulimic event with senseless and risky moves of masterpieces. Indeed, we might go further: compared to an exhibition not motivated by sound scientific assumptions, it is even better to have one of the many Leonardo experiences that are all the rage, or yet another exhibition of Leonardo’s machine models prepared in a shopping mall.

So, in conclusion, indignant sovereignists be quiet, get informed before commenting or devote themselves to other topics, and above all, stop using Leonardo da Vinci as a political battleground: in terms of tributes to the genius, Italy is second to none, and those who want to delve into his figure have had and continue to have a wide range of possibilities. The Italian celebrations started with the exhibition at the Uffizi that brought the Codex Leicester back to Italy more than 30 years after the last occasion, and with the interesting Milanese exhibition of the drawings with ideas for the Last Supper, and are continuing in several cities. In no particular order: in Milan, the Sala delle Asse reopens after restoration, complete with specially produced multimedia projections; also in the Lombard capital, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana devotes a busy program to highlighting its Leonardo heritage (recall that the Ambrosiana is in possession of the Codex Atlanticus, a major player in its palimpsest), in Parma, as anticipated, the new investigations on the Scapigliata are presented, in Turin and Venice there are two exhibitions of drawings set up around Leonardo’s masterpieces in the two museums, namely the Ritratto d’uomo (the drawing thought to be a self-portrait of Leonardo) and theUomo vitruviano, in Florence, in addition to the exhibition on Verrocchio, which is also an invaluable opportunity for reflection on the relationship between Leonardo and his master (this is the “great event” that everyone hopes for, and it is certainly much more useful than a hypothetical “great exhibition” on Leonardo), it is also possible to visit an exhibition with selected sheets from the Codex Atlanticus, in Rome, the Scuderie del Quirinale focuses on Leonardo the scientist while the Vatican Museums exhibit the San Girolamo (moreover, one of the masterpieces of their collection) free for all; in Vinci, the genius’ homeland, a precious exhibition (the first of the Pedretti Foundation) on Wenceslaus Hollar’s engravings taken from Leonardo’s folios ended a few days ago.

Contemporary art lovers, on the other hand, can go to Anghiari, where Emilio Isgrò is exhibiting a work, specially created, that confronts the Battle of Anghiari, or to the Centro Pecci in Prato, which is organizing an exhibition with reinterpretations of Leonardo according to artists from the 1960s to the present, or again to the Fondazione Stelline in Milan, where some contemporary artists of international caliber are rereading theLast Supper. Finally, if it really comes down to engaging in a delirious competition over who can borrow the most works, those who bemoan the fact that Italy might temporarily send a couple of Leonardo’s paintings or drawings abroad, remember that in June the Benois Madonna and in the fall the Litta Madonna will arrive in our country. And so many who in recent months have been talking about our country’s alleged surrender on the subject, perhaps they would do well to take a snippet of time to visit one of the exhibitions just mentioned.

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