Madeleine's Bedroom

Sunday evening Sonnet and I take the kiddies, against their will, to see "Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan," at London's National Gallery on its closing night, no less. The exhibitions includes nine of da Vinci's 15-surviving paintings - the first time so many of the master's works exhibited together (A historian on Radio 4 advises : each painting should be viewed for a minimum of 20 minutes, which raises a groan from the back seat as Eitan quickly does the maths). Says the curator of Italian painting pre-1500 Luke Syson : "Once-in-a-lifetime experience".

The show's focus on  da Vinci's work at the Sforza Court in Milan (1480-90) as a painter and engineer for the Duke. During this period he produced the "La Belle Ferronniere," "The Lady with an Ermine" (my favourite), "Virgin On The Rocks" (the first time on loan from the Louvre) and that little fresco, "The Last Supper" (which my sister recreated on the wall of a frozen yogurt shop in Boston while Harvard).  All of these works, barring "The Last Supper" (which is painted onto the wall of a church in Milan) on view. It is a ring-side seat to the beginning of the Renaissance.  Wow. Wow.

 From da Vinci to the Super Bowl. One spectacle to another.