Marty Moss-Coane discusses Ken Burns: Leonardo da Vinci

A new Ken Burns film about Leonardo da Vinci airs on WQED-TV on November 18th and 19th at 8pm. Marty Moss-Coane, host of WHYY’s The Connection, talks about the new documentary and about da Vinci’s genius and imagination with two of the filmmakers and an art historian. Leonardo da Vinci was more than a great artist, famous for The Last Supper and Mona Lisa. He was a draughtsman, an engineer, a scientist, a sculptor, and an architect. He had a voracious curiosity and believed that real understanding was best found in nature, not in a musty library. He didn’t complete half the paintings he started and left behind thousands of pages of drawings. Filmmakers Sarah Burns and David McMahon, who lived in Florence where Leonardo lived, talk about how they brought this 15th century genius to life. Joining them is Jack Hinton, curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.