Virtual gallery showcases Leonardo's 'power and grace'

A new virtual gallery of Leonardo da Vinci's paintings that plunges the viewer into the Renaissance master's creative process opened on June 25 at the manor in central France where he spent the last three years of his life.

The 12-minute immersive experience envelops the visitor with the paintings and the sketches that preceded them, projected onto the walls and rounded ceiling of a darkened gallery at the Clos Luce in the town of Amboise.

Close-ups, notably of faces and hands from masterpieces such as The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne but also of fabric folds, flora and other details, deepen the viewer's appreciation of the artist's virtuosity.

The Last Supper is shown in its stages, starting with the background, adding the table and finally Jesus and the Apostles.

The virtual masterclass also delves into Leonardo's trademark sfumato technique - the subtle blurring of the edges of images that creates a 3D effect - and his mastery of perspective.

"Nothing is left to chance in Leonardo's masterpieces," said Clos Luce president Francois Saint Bris, who led exhaustive documentary research to select the drawings.

The immersive experience "evokes Leonardo's power and grace," he told reporters.

Anne Carles of Arc-en-Scene, the show's principal creator, likened it to a concerto: "an overture with the 17 works gathered in an imaginary gallery" followed by a series of themed sequences, "from smiles to drapery, from background landscapes to perspective".

Then, "each of the scenes is deepened by the presentation of all his preparatory drawings," Carles told AFP.

For her, Leonardo "became a very intimate subject. You enter into dialogue with the universal artist."

The virtual show brings together more...