RT Journal Article
T1 da Vinci Quincentenary Exhibition of 1952
A1 Professor Jim Bennett
YR 2015
VO 4
IS Autumn 2015
K1 Leonardo models
K1  Science Museum
K1  Royal Academy
AB A large and successful exhibition to mark the 500th anniversary of the birth of Leonardo da Vinci was held at the Royal Academy, Burlington House, London, in 1952. It was an important event for the public appreciation of Leonardo’s genius. The proposal for the exhibition had come from the Science Museum, whose staff arranged a ‘scientific section’ of the exhibition, providing and displaying photographs and models. The story of these early models is particularly interesting in the light of the subsequent expansion in the use of mechanical models and animations to interpret and present Leonardo’s work. Questions that surrounded their introduction are accentuated by the ubiquity of models today. Some of the 1952 models will be displayed at the Science Museum in 2016, alongside an exhibition of a large group of ‘historical models’ first displayed in Milan in 1953. The occasion should provoke some thoughtful consideration of the current influence of this tool for research and display.
NO National Gallery website, http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/leonardo-da-vinci-painter-at-the-court-of-milan (accessed 3 July 2015)
NO Skira website, http://www.skiragrandimostre.it/leonardo/?lang=en (accessed 3 July 2015)
NO Royal Collection website, http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/exhibitions/leonardo-da-vinci-anatomist (accessed 3 July 2015)
NO Grande Exhibitions website, http://davincithegenius.com/ (accessed 3 July 2015)
NO I owe this point to an anonymous peer reviewer.
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, memo Gilbert to O’Dea, 9.8.49. The contents of the file have not been given page or folio numbers, so will be referred to by a brief description and date.
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, paper by Gilbert, 8.9.49
NO Science Museum Registry file 8064, including a letter Samuel to Mackintosh, 6.6.39
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, memo O’Dea to Shaw
NO For Greenaway, see Greenaway, 2007; Morris and Bud, 2014.
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, memo by Greenaway
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, memo by Gilbert, 14.10.50
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, memo by Sherwood Taylor, 21.11.50; memo by Gilbert 28.11.50
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, letters from Kendrick to Sherwood Taylor, 6.12.50, 18.12.50
NO The Diploma Galleries had been damaged during the War and this would be the first time they had been used since. Their original purpose had been to house the works required of Academicians on their election, but the galleries would not return to this use.
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, memo Sherwood Taylor to Stowers, 27.2.51
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, letter Kelly to Sherwood Taylor, 18.3.51
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, memo Sherwood Taylor to Gilbert, 17.3.51
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, letter from Feldhaus, 5.5.51
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, memo Gilbert to Sherwood Taylor, 11.5.51
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, memo Sherwood Taylor to Gilbert, 17.5.51
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, memo Sherwood Taylor to Gilbert, 6.6.51
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, letter Sherwood Taylor to Singer, 6.6.51
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, letter Sherwood Taylor to Kelly, 13.6.51
NO Medical History Supplement, 30 (2011), correspondence of Sigerist and Singer, p 261, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3207627/ (accessed 4 July 2015)
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, letter Singer to Sherwood Taylor, 11.6.51
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, letter Kelly to Sherwood Taylor, 14.6.51
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, letter Singer to Sherwood Taylor, 19.11.51
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, letters Sherwood Taylor to Singer, 16.11.51, and to Kelly, 16.11.51; letters Kelly to Sherwood Taylor, 17.11.51, 21.11.51
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, letter Sherwood Taylor to Keele, 16.11.51; letter Keele to Sherwood Taylor, 19.11.51; memo Gibson to Sherwood Taylor, 14.6.51; letter Kelly to Sherwood Taylor, 7.12.51
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, letter Kelly to Sherwood Taylor, 31.3.52; letter Sherwood Taylor to Kelly, 3.4.52; The Times, 9 April 1952, p 4, and 8 May, p 8
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, list of loans to the Royal Academy, 13.2.52; receipts from the Royal Academy, 13.2.52, 3.3.52
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, memo Gilbert to Sherwood Taylor, 28.4.51
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, specification Gilbert to Goacher Ltd; letter by Drury, of Goacher Ltd, to Gilbert, no date
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, memo Sherwood Taylor to Gilbert, 30.4.51
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, memo Sherwood Taylor to Gilbert, 16.11.51
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, letters Sherwood Taylor to Kelly, 31.12.51; Kelly to Sherwood Taylor 2.1.52
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, letter Kelly to Sherwood Taylor, 31.3.52
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, letter Kelly to FST, 21.8.52
NO Science Museum Registry, Report of the Advisory Council for the year 1952; file 8877, memo by Gilbert 27.8.52
NO Science Museum Registry file 8877, letters Koyré to Sherwood Taylor, 10.9.51; Sherwood Taylor to Koyré, 20.9.51; Report of the Advisory Council for the year 1952
NO The inventory numbers are: 1952-280 (file-cutting machine), 1952-281 (screw-cutting machine), 1952-282 (boring machine), 1952-283 (hygroscope), 1952-284 (anemometer), 1952-285 (grinding plane mirrors), 1952-286 (grinding concave mirrors), 1952-287 (helicopter), 1952-288 (N-truss bridge). The technical files at the Science Museum are: T/1952-280 to 288. Photo negative numbers: 510297-510310, 520001-520068, 520070-520076, 520078-520111, 540249, 520620-520624, 520925-520927.
PB The Science Museum Group
SN 2054-5770
LA eng
DO 10.15180/150403
UL http://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/browse/issue-04/da-vinci-quincentenary-exhibition-of-1952/
CR Chadarevian, Soraya de and Hopwood, N, 2004, Models: the third dimension of science (Stanford: Stanford University Press)
CR Galluzzi, P, 1996, Renaissance engineers from Brunelleschi to Leonardo da Vinci (Florence: Giunti)
CR Greenaway, F, 2004, ‘Taylor, Frank Sherwood (1897–1956)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (Oxford: Oxford University Press), http://ezproxy-prd.bodleian.ox.ac.uk:2167/view/article/36430 (accessed 9 July 2015)
CR Greenaway, F, 2007, Chymica Acta: an Autobiographical Memoir, eds   Anderson, R, Morris, J T and Robinson, D A (Jeremy Mills Publishing Ltd)
CR Hart, I B, 1925, The mechanical investigations of Leonardo da Vinci (London: Chapman & Hall)
CR Hesse, M B, 1963, Models and analogies in science (London: Sheed & Ward)
CR Hutchinson, Sydney C, 1968, The history of the Royal Academy (London: Chapman & Hall)
CR Illustrated London News, 1939, ‘Leonardo Da Vinci as mechanical genius: machines reconstructed from sketches for a Milan exhibition’, The Illustrated London News, 13 May 1939, pp 830–31
CR Illustrated London News, 1952, ‘On view in the Quincentenary Exhibition: machines devised by Leonardo da Vinci’, The Illustrated London News, 29 March 1952, pp 552–3
CR Kelly, G, 1952, letter to the editor, The Times, 15 March, p 7, http://ezproxy-prd.bodleian.ox.ac.uk:2119/ttda/start.do?prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=oxford (accessed 5 July 2015)
CR Kemp, M, 2006, Leonardo da Vinci: experience, experiment and design (London: V&A Publications)
CR Kenworthy, D, 1952, letter to the editor, The Times, 14 March, p 7, http://ezproxy-prd.bodleian.ox.ac.uk:2119/ttda/start.do?prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=oxford (accessed 5 July 2015)
CR Landrus, M, 2013, ‘Re-reading Heydenreich’s positivist assessment of Leonardo’s achievement’, in Nanni, R, and Torrini, M (eds), ‘1952’Leonardo e la cultura dell’Europa nel dopoguerra (Florence: Olschki), pp 321–38
CR Manchester Guardian, 1952, ‘Leonardo, engineer. A Royal Academy exhibition’, 4 March, p 5, http://ezproxy-prd.bodleian.ox.ac.uk:2059/hnpguardianobserver/docview/479310238/E6BBDDDC14C34A13PQ/3?accountid=13042 (accessed 8 July 2015)
CR Moon, F, 2007, The machines of Leonardo Da Vinci and Franz Reuleaux (New York: Springer)
CR Morgan, M S, and Morrison, M, 1999, Models as mediators: perspectives on natural and social science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
CR Morris, P (ed), 2010, Science for the nation. Perspectives on the History of the Science Museum (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan)
CR Morris, P, and Bud, R, 2014, ‘Obituary: Frank Greenaway’, Science Museum Group Journal, Spring 2014, Issue 01, http://journal.sciencemuseum.org.uk/browse/2014/obituary-frank-greenaway/ (accessed 9 October 2015)
CR Popham, A E, 1952, ‘The reappearance of some Leonardo drawings’, The Burlington Magazine, 94/590 (May, 1952), pp 127–132, http://www.jstor.org/stable/870817 (accessed 5 July 2015)
CR Royal Academy, 1952, Leonardo da Vinci Quincentenary Exhibition 1952 (London: Royal Academy of Arts)
CR Sherwood Taylor, F, 1939, A short history of science (London: Heinmann)
CR Sherwood Taylor, F, 1950, The world of science (London: Heinmann, 2nd edn)
CR Sherwood Taylor, F, 1952a, ‘Leonardo as scientist’, The Spectator, 188/6455 (14 March 1952), pp 319–20, http://ezproxy-prd.bodleian.ox.ac.uk:2059/docview/1295776134/D1C6148A9CA54B14PQ/18?accountid=13042 (accessed 11 July 2015)
CR Sherwood Taylor, F, 1952b, ‘Leonardo the humanist. The Quincentenary Exhibition’, The Tablet, 199/5834, (15 March 1952), pp 208–9, http://archive.thetablet.co.uk/article/15th-march-1952/8/leonardo-the-humanist (accessed 11 July 2015)
CR Sherwood Taylor, F, 1953, ‘Léonard de Vinci et la chimie de son temps’, in Léonard de Vinci et l’expérience scientifique au XVIe siècle (Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Presses universitaires de France), pp 151–62
CR Sherwood Taylor, F, 1954, ‘Leonardo da Vinci’, Proceedings of the British Association, Oxford Meeting, 1954, pp 435–39
CR Sibum, H O, 1995, ‘Reworking the mechanical value of heat: instruments of precision and gestures of accuracy in early Victorian England’, Studies in history and philosophy of science, 26, pp 73–106
CR Simcock, A V, 1987, ‘Alchemy and the world of science: an intellectual biography of Frank Sherwood Taylor’, Ambix, 34/3, pp 121–39
CR Times, 1952, ‘Leonardo’s Genius’, The Times, 19 March 1952, p 10, http://ezproxy-prd.bodleian.ox.ac.uk:2119/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=oxford&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=&docId=CS168250995&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0 (accessed 8 July 2015)
WT Science Museum Group Journal
OL 30