Founded by scholars and artists as the first museum on the complexity of Leonardo da Vinci the artist, scientist, inventor and designer in relation to his biography, his territories and his actuality, it has realised the theories of the Imaginary Museum and the ever-growing Mundaneum.
The Museo Ideale Leonardo Da Vinci, due to its vocation as a site of research, philological rediscovery and creativity, pursues three major objectives, namely to spread knowledge of a truer, more ingenious and topical Leonardo beyond stereotypes, rhetoric and legend; to investigate and present the ‘lost’ Leonardo and to point out the results of new studies and interpretations aimed also at his ‘heritage’ and his school (from the Achademia Leonardi Vinci to Leonardo’s followers); and finally, to reread and connect his work both with the Renaissance context and in contemporary culture.
It is housed in the Gallery, which with the Antica Cantina del Castello housed a forerunner ‘wine museum’ as early as the 19th century. This is attested to in Giuseppe Garibaldi’s memoirs of July-August 1868, in which it is referred to as the ‘Masetti Museum’, since it was part of the property of the Counts Masetti da Bagnano, together with the Conti Guidi fortress (later donated to the Municipality of Vinci) and the Grappa lands (now the ‘Garden of Leonardo’ and formerly the property of Leonardo’s father). Just opposite the entrance to the Museum was the Mill of the Commune (with its water gora), which in 1478 was taken over by Leonardo’s father Ser Piero and uncle Francesco. Leonardo himself was present at the deed, was to renovate the Mill and would be its usufructuary. The part built in the 19th century was built on the underground gora of the Mill of the Municipality and the Da Vinci family.
It began in 1972 as an in-progress collection of various materials, both ancient and modern (Leonardo, ethno-anthropological of the Vinci area and contemporary art related to Leonardo), aimed at creating sets of works, artefacts and documentary material, including those otherwise destined to be dispersed. The collection includes original antique paintings (plates) from Leonardo’s school, tools from his time and his homeland (such as the ‘Ritrecine di Leonardo’), rare engravings (including Dürer’s 1506-8 ‘Nodi’ based on Leonardo’s drawing); models artfully reconstructed from his designs; marvels of Leonardoism (from period relics to two autographs by Duchamp and thousands of works and artefacts in progress) to Buckminster Fuller’s ‘Dome of Arts and Ideas’ inspired by Leonardo. It also exhibits works that are entrusted to it on deposit by collectors, Italian and foreign private individuals, or loaned by other museums and libraries.
Hours:
November-February: daily 9.30am-6pm
(ticket office closed at 5.15 p.m. – viewing terrace closed)
March-October: daily 9.30am-7pm
(ticket office closed at 6.15 p.m.)
Christmas and New Year’s Eve: 3.00 p.m. – 7.00 p.m. (ticket office closed at 6.15 p.m.)