CELEBRATIONS FOR THE “FESTA DELLA TOSCANA” INCLUDE ONE ACT DRAMA “LEONARDO da vinci’s last journey” BY VINCENZO ARNONE AND SANT’ANNA SCHOOL PERCRO LAB., ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, IN FLORENCE - PALAZZO VECCHIO
The “Festa della Toscana 2019” events sponsored by Tuscany region authority Consiglio Regionale Toscano and Florence City Council include a one act drama by Vincenzo Arnone to celebrate "Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Journey”. Taking place on Saturday, February 15, in Florence Sala d’Arme - Palazzo Vecchio, at 8.45 pm, the event allows visitors to follow Leonardo da Vinci through an imaginative and immersive journey from Italy to France.
In 1516, travelling by mule with the Mona Lisa in a saddlebag, Leonardo went to the Clos Lucé chateau close to the residence of Renaissance king Francis I, at Amboise, where Leonardo (aged 67) died on May 2, 1519. For much of his life, Leonardo enjoyed the patronage of the Medici in Florence, the Duke of Milan and the Pope in Rome. Leonardo’s early years were marked by experimentation and innovation - he was intellectually engaged in architecture, sculpture, drawing, and writing. He was a scenographer, anatomist, musician, and designer. He explored all the different fields of art and knowledge that then defined the Renaissance era. Therefore, Leonardo da Vinci is regarded as the archetype of the Renaissance Man or Homo Universalis who excels in a wide variety of subjects and abilities encompassing the full spectrum of human nature.
The Florence Theatre Academy directed by Pietro Bartolini cooperated with the Perceptual Robotics PERCRO Lab of Sant’Anna School TECIP Institute research team under the supervision of Professor Massimo Bergamasco in the use of digital technology in performing arts. Their creative practices and audience engagement strategies through the "Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Journey” begin with Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. In his tribute to Leonardo who consolidated the notion of a Renaissance after the “ignorance of the dark ages” and whose legacy continues to inspire us 500 years later his death, Vasari describes the revival of Classical styles as a (religious) reawakening of moral and humanist values.
Humanism and Renaissance “good life” set the stage for many aspects of our modern culture. The humanist approach together with personality traits, such as humility and common sense, allows the Genoveffa character (played by actor Claudia Bartolini) to obtain approval from Leonardo.
Actor Franco Ignesti will play the lead character; Tiziana Acomanni and Ludovica Sanalitro create the visual environment for the theatre production. Vincenzo Arnone has curated the “virtual reality performances” of Gerolamo Savonarola’s life in the “Festa della Toscana 2016” and the second (he was 23 years younger) Renaissance genius Michelangelo Buonarroti, in the “Festa della Toscana 2018”.
