On the 500th anniversary of his death, Florence and the world remember the great genius with some exhibitions and events (here below you will find the next appointments in Florence and Prato), a memory of his passion for cooking.

The “cocina” (kitchen in ancient vocabulary) always in order, the fire always on, a reserve of water always boiling, the floor always clean thanks to jets of water and brushes; tools for washing, chopping, slicing, peeling and cutting; a car to remove the bad smells and I would dare a pleasant and smoke-free air. And then, around there, music, because people work better and eat with more appetite.

For Leonardo Da Vinci, there were instructions for the “preparation and cooking” area and for the “banquet” area. And it isn’t a coincidence that in the “Ultima Cena” (The Last Supper) that he paints, close to everyone at the table there is a small table cloth to clean their mouth and hands, it was the first napkin in the history of art.

And how can we forget the good menu made for the tavern called “all’insegna delle tre ranocchie – di Sandro e Leonardo” (dedicated to the three frogs by Sandro e Leonardo), where the partner, the friend Sandro Botticelli, thought to draw on the menu (for the diners who could not read) their dishes: boiled kid, artichokes, kidney of lamb, cucumber, carrots and the house specialty, fried frogs.

From his writings have been recovered ideas of fast appetizers such as: boiled onion laid on a slice of buffalo cheese and topped with a black olive wedges; or: three slices of raw carrot each carved in the shape of a seahorse, with a caper on top and a drop of anchovy paste beside it. Nouvelle cousine of other times …

But the Leonardesque mind did not stop at the creation of recipes, he also designed kitchen tools, precursors of the blender or rotisserie. When he died in 1519, exactly 500 years ago, Leonardo left half his estate to the faithful cook, along with drawings of a series of brilliant inventions such as the corkscrew, the slicer, the pepper mill and the garlic mince, still called by the cooks “Il Leonardo”.

In Florence, from Palazzo Vecchio start the dream of bringing to light the lost fresco, the battle of Anghiari that Leonardo painted in the “Salone dei Cinquecento” and which didn’t reach to us. An exhibition entitled “On the traces of the battle of Anghiari” will allow to rediscover this lost wonder, until 12 January 2020. But many more are the appointments with Leonardo.

Leonardo da Vinci: events and exhibitions in Florence to celebrate the 500th anniversary of his death

If Florence has anticipated everyone, with the first exhibition at the Uffizi, dedicated to the Leicester Code that has already ended, Palazzo Vecchio starts the dream of bringing to light the lost fresco, the battle of Anghiari that Leonardo painted in the Salone dei Cinquecento and that unfortunately did not reach us. An exhibition entitled On the traces of the battle of Anghiari will allow to rediscover this lost wonder, until 12 January 2020. But many more are the appointments with Leonardo and an APP, in 5 languages, “Being Leonardo”, will allow the virtual visit of the places of Leonardo in Tuscany, a three-dimensional journey in which runs the entire life of Leonardo da Vinci and from which you can access the fundamental environments of its existence reconstructed in 3D, and observe its futuristic machines and the famous paintings.

At Palazzo Strozzi, from 8 March to 14 July, will host an important exhibition, in some way propaedeutic to the work of genius: Verrocchio master of Leonardo. On exhibition the works of the “master” Andrea del Verrocchio and of his shop where were formed great artists as: Botticelli, Perugino, Ghirlandaio and of course Leonardo, which will be exposed some drawings and studies.

Fogli scelti del Codice Atlantico (Selected sheets of the Atlantic Code) constitute the corpus of another very important exhibition at Palazzo Vecchio from 29 March. Leonardo da Vinci and Florence, which will go on until June 24th.

The prestigious spaces and the great cloister of Santa Maria Novella are the exhibition space for Leonardo and botany, an exhibition dedicated to scientific studies, which we can admire from September.

Although he had not followed a course of study, which we could now define as “academic”, Leonardo was a man of great cultural and intellectual interests, and as evidence of this there are about 200 books, on which he was formed. Leonardo’s library is the exhibition that will present the texts studied and loved by the genius of Vinci, with original books or reproductions. At the Museo Galileo from May to September.

In Prato, close toFlorence

Until the 26th of May, the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition, “the ingenuity, the fabric” is scheduled at the Museo del Tessuto in Prato. An original story about the work done on textile art, with the development and study of machinery.