Texas Border Business
What: Leonardo da Vinci: Machines in Motion
When: Now through Dec. 20, 2019, during normal business hours
Where: UTRGV Engineering Building, Edinburg Campus
Campus Map: https://www.utrgv.edu/_files/documents/admissions/visit/utrgv-edinburg-map.pdf
EDINBURG, TEXAS – The genius of Leonardo da Vinci is on display through December at the UTRGV Engineering Building on the Edinburg Campus. Sponsored by the university’s Office of Public Art, the hands-on exhibit brings to life da Vinci’s extraordinary talents as an engineer, designer, anatomist and architect, as well as a painter, sculptor and musician.
“Leonardo da Vinci: Machines in Motion” presents full-scale machines built after in-depth study of the artist’s designs by a group of scientists and skilled craftsmen in Florence, Italy. Many of the mechanisms are life-size and fully operational. Others are scale models but fully interactive – including a motion-activated, armor-clad robot. Visitors are able to touch the machines and set them in motion, making for a fascinating hands-on exploration of the principles da Vinci employed to create each machine. The machines are grouped into four sections based upon applications linked to the elements – air, water, land and fire – which held a strong fascination for him.
“This is a fabulous exhibit that will fascinate visitors of all ages,” said Dr. Dahlia Guerra, assistant vice president of Public Art at UTRGV. “The exhibit allows visitors to dive beyond da Vinci’s artworks and into his visionary inventions – including the drive transmission, the printing press and many others. “Most of the materials used in the construction of these machines were available in da Vinci’s era,” she said, “and are the ones proposed by him in his codices, including wood, rope and glue.The materials were crafted by hand, using tools prescribed by the artist himself, and then reinforced for the traveling exhibition.”
The exhibit is now open and will run through Dec. 20, 2019, at the UTRGV Engineering Building on the Edinburg Campus, during regular business hours. Admission is free. School groups are welcome. For more information, contact the UTRGV Office of Public Art at (956) 665-2353.
