Leonardo: Experience a Masterpiece
One painting. An entire world to uncover.
For the National Gallery, 59 Studio developed an immersive exhibition around Leonardo da Vinci’s The Virgin of the Rocks, exploring not only the finished painting, but the ideas, techniques and discoveries hidden behind it.
As Senior Video Designer during the concept phase, I helped shape the exhibition journey, developing story beats, visual approaches and spatial ideas before handing the project into production.
Role
Senior Video Designer (Concept)
Created at
59 Studio
Venue
The National Gallery, London
Year
2019
One painting, many ways in
The painting was always the destination. The exhibition built a journey towards it.
We explored different ways of opening up the work before visitors encountered the original, from a projection-mapped centrepiece to Leonardo’s studio, the science used to reveal earlier compositions beneath the surface, and experiments with light and technique.
Each experience approached the same object from a different direction: artistic, historical, technical and atmospheric.
Beneath the surface
One of the most compelling stories came from what the National Gallery had discovered through studying the painting itself.
Scanning revealed earlier drawings and changes beneath the finished work. That became an opportunity to make the act of looking part of the experience, helping visitors understand not only what Leonardo painted, but how the work evolved.
Here, media wasn’t simply there to animate the artwork. It could reveal something that the eye alone couldn’t see.
Designing the whole journey
The challenge wasn’t generating individual ideas. It was making them feel like parts of one experience.
This was an early exhibition project for me, and it reinforced something I’ve carried into later work: a strong installation can still feel fragmented if the journey between moments isn’t considered with the same care.
The overall rhythm (what visitors discover, when they discover it and how one experience leads into the next) matters as much as any individual piece.
Project credits
Concept & Video Design: Max Italiaander at 59 Studio
Concept development included research, story development, visualisation and spatial/video design. The project was subsequently developed and delivered by the wider 59 Studio team.
Created for the National Gallery, London.