News Culture

Rome celebrates Leonardo with Roman Mona Lisa

By: Wanted in Rome

Date:

14 Oct, 2019

Villa Farnesina hosts works created in da Vinci's Rome workshop.

Rome pays homage to Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci on the 500th anniversary of his death by showing restored works created in the artist's Roman workshop, in an exhibition at Villa Farnesina until 12 January.

Entitled Leonardo in Rome: Influences and Legacy, the show displays the Gioconda Torlonia, also known as the "Roman Mona Lisa", a restored painting believed to have been copied directly from da Vinci's work in his studio, with a posssible intervention by the master himself.

This is the hypothesis raised by Roberto Antonelli and Antonio Forcellino, curators of the exhibition organised by Accademia dei Lincei and Fondazione Primoli, and dedicated to the three years in which Leonardo da Vinci lived and worked in Rome.

The other restored works on display include the Nude Gioconda, S. Giovanni Battista, and the Salvator Mundi of the Basilica di S. Domenico Maggiore in Naples.

The exhibition, part of a three-year cycle of events dedicated to da Vinci, will also focus on Leonardo's relationship with Raphael during his stay in Rome, as well as the role of his Roman assistants.

The artist stayed in Rome, mainly at the Vatican, between 1513 and 1517, before leaving for France where he died two years later.