Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max Planck Institute

A new exhibition reconstructs the library of the universal genius

In an age of modern anatomy atlases and freely available online body-browsers, Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings of organs and body parts done with quill, ink and red chalk may strike us as aesthetically pleasing, yet antiquated. Nevertheless, almost everyone in Germany carries a reproduction of his famous Vitruvian Man with them – on their health insurance card. Alessandro Nova, Director at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, on the other hand, explores Leonardo’s work in the light of the scientific knowledge it generates.

Despite its prestige, the UNESCO world heritage title has some drawbacks

Scientists from Fraunhofer and Max Planck institutes are studying the history of the restoration of Pompeii, which has been a UNESCO world heritage site since 1997, and are developing innovative materials and processes for conserving the city’s ancient sites.

Repressions and censorship in Russia are having an effect: people need to find new ways to protest. Artists who express criticism are making use of a variety of imaginative aesthetic tactics from the Cold War era. At the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, Hana Gründler and her team are researching how art in Eastern Europe circumvents authoritarian structures and opens up spaces of freedom – then and now.

Researching the old to develop the new – what better place to do this than in Florence? At the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max Planck Institute, the “Ethics and Architecture” research group led by Brigitte Soelch and Hana Gruendler invites discussion of the history and theory of architecture and the applicability of its teachings to the present and future of building.

The Spanish Conquistadors found it surprisingly easy to conquer the New World. However, it required more than violence and cruelty to rule the territory. A team of researchers headed by Thomas Duve at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History is investigating the media through which the Spanish crown consolidated its dominion. Meanwhile, an international research group led by Carolin Behrmann at the Max Planck Institute for Art History in Florence is studying the importance of images in the consolidation and legitimation of law with a focus on Early Modern European history.

In an age of modern anatomy atlases and freely available online body-browsers, Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings of organs and body parts done with quill, ink and red chalk may strike us as aesthetically pleasing, yet antiquated. Nevertheless, almost everyone in Germany carries a reproduction of his famous Vitruvian Man with them – on their health insurance card. Alessandro Nova, Director at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, on the other hand, explores Leonardo’s work in the light of the scientific knowledge it generates.

The flood of images prevailing in the digital habitat virtually repeats the media “revolution” that the spread of photography in the 19th century brought to science and society. Five publications of the Photothek of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz from 2020 provide theoretical and methodological tools for dealing with this. According to them, photo archives are scientific and social laboratories as well as experimental spaces (also for artists), from which reflections on materiality, value systems, taxonomy and even current topics such as cultural heritage or migration emerge.

Since 2008, the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz has conceived various international conferences under the scientific direction of Alessandro Nova, each dedicated to specific aspects of the work of Leonardo da Vinci. On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death, the research project’s final conference De-Coding Leonardo’s Codices took place. All proceedings have been characterized by close cooperation with international institutions and a decidedly interdisciplinary approach, which reflects the diverse interests of the artist, researcher and philosopher Leonardo da Vinci.

The Kunsthistorische Institut in Florenz MPI is engaging in collaborative projects dealing with the history and presence of disasters on the Italian peninsula as the earthquakes in L’Aquila 2009, Emilia 2012 und Central Italy 2016/17. The research concentrates on the consequences for monumental heritage and landscape, and discusses sustainable concepts for the future in a comparative international approach.

This interdisciplinary project of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz investigates from both a technological and a historical-cultural perspective the complex modern history of the archaeological site of Pompeii, its restorations and its musealization. Combining the expertise of the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics in Holzkirchen (Munich) and the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, the main aim of this project is to contribute to a more profound understanding of cultural heritage issues and to the development of sustainable methods for the conservation of monumental heritage.

To comply with the requirements of art-historical research, libraries have to adapt their services to the standards of digital publication formats and digital forms of communication. International collaboration is indispensable to meet these demands. The Kunsthistorische Institut in Florenz is prominently involved in a network of art libraries. Dozens of art libraries from 15 countries have managed to establish a virtual bibliographic database. Furthermore, the network tests innovative methods to visualize semantic and quantitative information in catalogue data.