|
Leonardo related program Dr. Richard O. Prum, W. R. Coe Professor of Ornithology, Yale University Sunday, October 12, 2008 Leonardo da Vinci is well known as a pioneer in many areas of Western art and the sciences. Throughout his life, Leonardo was fascinated by the flight of birds and the possibility of human flight. Although many researchers have discussed Leonardo's work on flight from a technological perspective, the exhibition at the Birmingham Museum of Art has created the first opportunity to analyze Leonardo's ideas from a biological one. Dr. Prum will review the modern science of bird flight, and then ask "How well did Leonardo understand bird flight?" He will conclude that many of Leonardo's observations were among the first fundamental contributions to the modern science of ornithology. Illustrated with images and video of birds in flight, the presentation will connect the miraculous flight of birds to the work of the Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci. |
