Leonardo da Vinci the star of major London show

[November 08, 2011]  LONDON (AP) -- Leonardo da Vinci is a Renaissance rock star.

A-list levels of hype and anticipation are surrounding a new exhibition of the artist's work at London's National Gallery.

"Leonardo: Painter at the Court of Milan" focuses on da Vinci's formative years as a court painter in the 1480s and 1490s. The gallery spent years persuading museums in Italy, France, the United States, Russia and Poland to lend fragile works for the show, which gathers nine of Leonardo's 15 surviving paintings and dozens of drawings.

Highlights include two versions of "The Virgin of the Rocks," which have never been shown together. One usually hangs in the Louvre in Paris, while the other is owned by the National Gallery.

There is also a full-scale copy of "The Last Supper" on loan from the Royal Academy. The original mural is in the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan.

Another talking point is "Salvator Mundi," a formerly disputed portrait of Christ that sold at auction in 1958 for just 45 pounds, but which the gallery says is an authentic da Vinci work.

Curator Luke Syson said Tuesday that he hoped the show would "refocus attention on Leonardo the painter" -- rather than the scientist, inventor, architect or sculptor.

"First and foremost, Leonardo was trained as a painter, and he thought as a painter, even when he was working on other things," Syson said.

"Careful, detailed, precise observation" was at the root of all he did, Syson said.

The show, which opens Wednesday and runs to Feb. 5, has already generated intense interest. Tuesday's VIP preview is being broadcast live on television and in 40 British movie theaters.

The gallery expects the exhibition to be one of the most popular in its 187-year history, and is limiting tickets to prevent it from being overrun. It is selling 180 tickets every 30 minutes, 50 fewer than it is allowed under health and safety rules.

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Online: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/

[Associated Press; By JILL LAWLESS]

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