CARLO PEDRETTI STORY. TRIBUTE TO CARLO PEDRETTI - “THE ANDROGYNE AND THE ACHADEMIA”

Room VI

The VI room of Leo-Lev Exhibition Center pays tribute to Professor Carlo Pedretti, universally recognized as one of the leading experts about the Leonardo da Vinci’s life and works. Despite his large culture, Carla Pedretti liked to call himself “Leonardo’s Servant of Servants”, almost to cover himself in front of the Renaissance Master’s grandeur.

Since very young, Pedretti expressed a strong curiosity for Leonardo and his passion got him deeply interested to artist-scientist from Vinci, enough to start a journey of rigorous studies who led him to seek information in archives and libraries around the world.

The most important job was assigned to his by Elisabeth Queen in the mid-1950s, when Pedretti took care of fragments catalogue from Codex Atlanticus at Windsor Castle’s Royal Library.

Later, in 1959, Carlo Pedretti – together with his wife Rossana –  decides to leave Italy and moves in California, a perfect place for his professional growth. At Los Angeles, indeed, he became Emeritus Professor of History of Italian Art at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), where also he was Chair in Leonardo Studies. Also in the Californian City, he directed Hammer Museum that kept the Leicester Codex by Leonardo. In 2013, Pedretti definitively moves to Italy, at Lamporecchio, close to Vinci.

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The VI room of Leo-Lev Center pays tribute to Pedretti, described by the art historian Kenneth Clark as “the greatest Leonardo scholar of our time…”. The multimedia video explores the most important stages of Carlo Pedretti’s life.

From partnership with Piero Angela’s Superquark to various interview and publications. His return to Italy at Lamporecchio, the honorary citizenship at Vinci, the visit of Carlo Pedretti in future headquarter of Leo-Lev Exhibition Center and the design – together with Architect Oreste Ruggiero- of the fountain inspired by a Leonardo’s drawing.

The fountain’s construction was made possibile thanks Leo-Lev Center, but sadly Carlo Pedretti couldn’t enjoy that work that now it’s located in Vinci square, named in his honor, thanks to an Leo-Lev’s initiative and to quick response by Municipality of Vinci and Prefecture of Florence.