We the Italians May 17, 2015 - 60 | Page 24

th th # 60 • MAY 17 , 2015 # 60 • MAY 17 , 2015 read more about #Italian Flavors ITALIAN FLAVORS: SAN DANIELE HAM By Consorzio del Prosciutto di San Daniele with MiPAAF the representation of the perfect proportions of the human body, with the demonstration of the impossibility to contain it in circle or square shapes. Essential is his contribution to all scientific disciplines. He studied fossils, giving to this field very important conclusions; he explains the gravitational force, comparing the planets to magnets attracting each other; he intuits in botany, three centuries before the official theories, that the leaves of the trees are distributed according to mathematics laws. In the field of inventions and designs, he imagines a flying machine and systems to soak in water: he will use his insights in anatomy, reasoning on the functioning of blood circulation, heart, muscles and bones. Leonardo will also provide important insights for the development of music, designing instruments whose systems will the Mona Lisa a new formube used centuries later in the la, more monumental and yet more animated, more concredesigns of musical projects. te, and yet more poetic than Considered the greatest ma- that of his predecessors. Befonifestation of the Renaissance, re him, the portraits were comLeonardo, not linked to any pletely missing any mystery; city, State or Prince, is the first the artists were showing just example of the cosmopolitani- external forms without soul or, sm of Italian intellectuals, uni- when they were characterizing que in Europe: an expression the soul, it was trying to reach of a gap between culture and the audience through gestupeople destined to be prolon- res, symbolic objects or wriged until today. tings. The Gioconda uniquely exudes an enigma: the soul is But the name of Leonardo da present, but inaccessible". Vinci is naturally tied to what probably is the most famous The myth of Leonardo da Vinci work of art in the world, por- remains timeless. Even today trait par excellence, the most his name and his character famous and admired artistic stand for the collective as a manifestation of all: “La Gio- symbol of knowledge even conda”. The woman of the por- before one of the many discitrait of the Mona Lisa, stored plines in which th R