This is the 2012 Da Vinci exhibition at Arte Canal in Madrid

One of the Madrid exhibitions that has had the most visitors since its inauguration last December is the Leonardo Da Vinci, the Genius, at the Canal Art Center.

Until now I had not had the opportunity to visit it, but I have finally seen in person the reasons for the success of an exhibition that you can see until the 2 of May of 2012.

Below I will tell you what the visit of the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at Arte Canal.

When you get to Canal Art Center, in the Plaza de Castilla in Madrid, after buying the tickets at the outside ticket office, the first thing you have to do is enter the large venue where, to begin with, you will see a very good 3D movie which makes a first approach to the figure of the great Renaissance artist.

In the film “Leonardo Da Vinci, the look of genius”, whose duration is 10 minutes, you have a first vision of his work from different conceptual perspectives, such as water, earth, fire, air, the natural soul or the human body.

This introductory film, whose 3d effects They are very successful, it is shown every 20 minutes, so in no case will you have to wait a long time to see it.

Once finished, you will enter the main room of the exhibition. I can tell you that this is a very educational exhibition focused, above all, on Leonardo Da Vinci's role as an inventor.

Thus, in this room you will see recreations of the numerous machines and gadgets that Leonardo left described in his codices.

In total there are up to 60 reproductions organized by thematic areas. In this way, in the hydraulic and aquatic machinery area, for example, you will be surprised by a diving suit, or some floats, similar to skis, to walk through the water, which in this case would never have worked...

Among the war machines conceived by Da Vinci, you will see a mechanical machine gun, or even a curious tank.

Without a doubt the main protagonists are the flying gadgets, such as the vertical ornithopter, a curious dragonfly-shaped machine, or studies of the flapping wing.

And among the Leonardo's inventions, you will also see musical gadgets, like a mechanical drum, or mechanical ones, like a cat.

In a small room next to this area of ​​the exhibition, a continuously projected excellent BBC documentary, The man who wanted to know everything, 50 minutes long.

Among other topics, in the documentary you can see how a group of adventure specialists build the parachute that Da Vinci conceived, which they test by launching from a plane, and thus verify that it would have worked.

In the exhibition you can also see some copies of his works, such as The Virgin of the Rock, and also some original drawings dedicated to Battle of Anghiari, as well as specific areas dedicated to reviewing the Da Vinci Codices and a reproduction of his work studio.

However, this final zone of the exhibition of Leonardo Da Vinci, the Genius Its protagonists are the color studies of his great work The Monna Lisa, in addition to showing some of its secrets.

And regarding another of the attractions of this exhibition, the copy of the famous painting The Last Supper, made by Giampetrino in 1515, is in this month of February when it arrives at the exhibition.

Finally, the exhibition closes with the exhibition of some paintings by artists contemporary with Leonardo Da Vinci, like the Spanish Fernando Yanez y Fernando de Llanos.

Although it is indicated that visiting the exhibition will take you about 80 minutes, it will actually depend on the time you want to dedicate to analyzing each of the gadgets on display and, above all, if you decide to watch the aforementioned BBC documentary in its entirety.

In sum, in Channel Art You have a unique opportunity to discover and deepen your knowledge of the Leonardo Da Vinci inventor.