On Tuesday October 22nd, the Italian Embassy in DC hosted an event to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s death and the legacy of the renaissance genius.<\/p>\n
The event, sponsored by Leonardo SpA, was aimed at celebrating not only his artistic achievements, as the creator of some the world\u2019s most famous and admired paintings \u2013 among which the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper but also the Ginevra de\u2019 Benci in the collection of the National Gallery \u2013 but his resolve in stretching the boundaries of possibility, his ability to make meaningful connections between different fields of knowledge, and his empirical approach that foreshadowed the methods that would later give origin to contemporary science.<\/p>\n
Italy\u2019s Ambassador to the US, Armando Varricchio, in his opening remarks underlined the strength of the friendship and Alliance uniting Italy and the US as testified by the recent visit of the President of the Italian Republic in the USA. Varricchio also added; \u201cTonight, we celebrate the 500th anniversary of Leonardo, the quintessential Renaissance man whose ingenuity, creativity and ability to stretch the boundaries of human knowledge, have always been deeply grounded and centered on a humanistic approach. Leonardo\u2019s legacy lives on to this day, as we try to ensure that the groundbreaking developments in many scientific fields we are witnessing are inclusive and benefit all of human kind. An approach that lies at the heart of the relationship between the USA and Italy, between the many researchers and scientists that work hand in hand to boost progress on both sides of the Atlantic, and between American and Italian companies, such as Leonardo.<\/p>\n
The Ambassador\u2019s words were echoed by Alessandro Profumo, Leonardo\u2019s CEO, who stated \u201cAs CEO of a leading international Aerospace, Defense and Security company, I am pleased to contribute to the celebration of this incomparable and unrivalled man, scientist, artist and literate. Our Company, with roots in Italy, bears its name in honor of this \u2018Genio Universale\u2019 whose vision of future worlds, and passion for innovation and excellence in engineering, still informs our daily activity. Similarly, Leonardo\u2019s ability to reach outside national boundaries drives us to continuously improve and develop our Company\u2019s international presence and grow with our partners, an example of which is over 50 years of serving the US government with technologies that share da Vinci\u2019s view of transforming ideas into innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event also represented an opportunity to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Leonardo DRS, the American subsidiary of the Italian company Leonardo and was enriched by an inspiring speech on Leonardo da Vinci legacy and enduring lesson by Michael Gelb, author of \u201cHow to think Leonardo Da Vinci, and by a performance by renowned mezzo-soprano Deborah Domanski.<\/p>\n
On display at the Embassy for the evening were some reproductions of da Vinci\u2019s flying machines, thanks to the exhibition designed by Leonardo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Tuesday October 22nd, the Italian Embassy in DC hosted an event to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s death and the legacy of the renaissance genius. The event, sponsored by Leonardo SpA, was aimed at celebrating not only his artistic achievements, as the creator of some the world\u2019s most famous and admired […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ambwashingtondc.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ambwashingtondc.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ambwashingtondc.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ambwashingtondc.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ambwashingtondc.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ambwashingtondc.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ambwashingtondc.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ambwashingtondc.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}