%0 Journal Article
%T The birth of a collection in Milan: from the Leonardo Exhibition of 1939 to the opening of the National Museum of Science and Technology in 1953
%A Claudio Giorgione
%D 2015
%V 
%N Autumn 2015
%K Chicago World's Fair
%K Leonardesca Exhibition
%K Leonardo models
%K National Museum of Science and Technology
%X The collection of Leonardo da Vinci historical models at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan is one of the largest and most important in the world. Created in 1952–53 to celebrate the fifth centenary of the birth of Leonardo and the opening of the Museum, the collection is made up of more than 140 models, interpreting the studies of Leonardo da Vinci and helping Museum visitors to understand and visualise his ideas. Before 1952, Leonardo models were already created and displayed in Florence (1929), Chicago (1933) and above all in the great Leonardo Exhibition held in Milan in 1939, which made a very important contribution to the knowledge of Leonardo as engineer to the public.
It’s very important to clarify the role of these models, which are not original artefacts made by Leonardo himself nor replicas of no longer existing machines. They are really a very important interpretation device created by scientific museology between late 1920s and 1950s.
%Z From 1796 to 1945 the building was converted into a military area named, after 1861, Caserma Villata (Villata Barracks).

%Z Ten years after Baird’s mechanical television first broadcast in 1928, experimental electronic television broadcasts were also made in 1939 by RCA during the New York World’s Fair.

%Z The two exhibitions (Leonardo and Italian inventions), even if strongly connected, were documented in separate publications. The Leonardo exhibition had an official guide (Mostra di Leonardo da Vinci. Guida Ufficiale, Milano, 1939), printed several times during the opening period, which listed the different sections. The Catalogue (Mostra di Leonardo. Catalogo, Milano, 1939) was printed only after the closure of the exhibition and presented photographs of all the works displayed. The exhibition of Italian inventions was documented in a different catalogue (Mostra di Leonardo da Vinci e delle Invenzioni italiane, Milano, 1939). This publication was more explicit about the will of Mussolini and the Fascist Government to celebrate Italian technology and the politic of autarchy in relationship with the genius of Leonardo da Vinci.

%Z After the closure of the Exhibition, in October 1939, British drawings could not be returned to Great Britain because the war had already begun. For this reason, they were safely stored in the cellars of the Castello Sforzesco and were returned to the United Kingdom only after the end of the War.

%Z Carlo Emilio Gadda, ‘La Mostra Leonardesca di Milano’, in Nuova Antologia, LXXIV, 404, f. 1618, 16 August, 1939.

%Z A first in-depth study of the Leonardo Exhibition of 1939 has been carried out by the art historian Roberto Cara in his final dissertation of the Postgraduate School in Art History. Roberto Cara, Ricerche sulla mostra di Leonardo da Vinci (Milano, 9 maggio–22 ottobre 1939), Università degli Studi di Milano, Anno Accademico 2008–2009.

%Z Gianluigi Banfi, Ludovico Barbiano di Belgioioso, Enrico Peressutti, and Ernesto Nathan Rogers, who were to play key roles on the Milanese museography scene after the war. Nathan Rogers, however, could not participate to this exhibition because he was excluded by racial segregation against Jews.

%Z Many models were built by the RACI (Royal Italian Automobile Club), which was largely involved in the organisation of the exhibition.

%Z Esposizione Nazionale di Storia della Scienza, Firenze, 1929 and Seventh International Aero Exhibition, London, 1929.

%Z Chicago 1933 and New York 1939 World’s Fairs were the only ones that opened the following year in a second revised edition (in 1934 and 1940).

%Z Guido Ucelli, in the introduction of the 1953 exhibition, wrote that the models were lost in 1942 due to actions of war after being shipped to Japan, in Scienza e Tecnica di Leonardo. Guida alla Mostra di Milano. Museo della Scienza e della Tecnica, Roma 1953, pp. viii-ix.

%Z Founded by Alberto Riva in 1884, the Company produced turbines for power plants. In 1899, Riva produced the Francis turbines for the Niagara power plant in the United States.

%Z Due to the terms of the Treaty of Peace signed in Paris on 10 February 1947.

%Z Martini (ed), 1967, I, p 193.

%I The Science Museum Group
%@ 2054-5770
%B eng
%U https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/leonardo-exhibition-of-1939/
%J Science Museum Group Journal