James Simon, who was a patriotic German as well as a Jew, died in 1932, a year before Adolf Hitler came to power. But his legacy lives on in the remarkable pieces he gave to Berlin before the Nazis came to power.
Think Leonardo
The Leonardo exhibition may be small, but the works in it are exceedingly rare and invite sustained contemplation. They ask you to be as attentive as Leonardo was to the human physiognomy, the workings of the body, and the miracles of animal, avian and insect nature. Installed in a small gallery on the main floor of the museum in dramatic low lighting, they draw you in with their intimate scale, and the delicacy and refinement of Leonardo's distinctive left-handed hatching.
In addition to the exquisite "Study of a Young Woman's Face (Angel for the Virgin of the Rocks)," the exhibition includes wonderful studies of a bearded man (perhaps Cesare Borgia) and the profile of a man crowned with laurel. A series of drawings of human and horse anatomy demonstrate Leonardo's scientific curiosity, as do a drawing examining the proportions of the head and small drawings of a beetle and a dragonfly.
The "Codex on the Flight of Birds" is amazing not only for the depth and breadth of Leonardo's investigations into the possibility of human flight but for its elegant mirror writing, so tiny that the small book contains myriad mysteries. Also fascinating are the way images of a face and eye appear subliminally on a drawing of screw mechanisms and the face of the angel materializes ghostlike on a drawing of a knot. These two-sided drawings offer double the pleasure, as they are mounted in such a way that you can see both sides.
The State Museums of Berlin and the Legacy of James Simon
WHEN: Through Jan. 18.
Leonardo da Vinci: Drawings From the Biblioteca Reale in Turin
WHEN: Through Jan. 4.
WHERE: Legion of Honor, Lincoln Park, 34th Avenue and Clement Street, San Francisco.
HOURS: 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. Tuesday - Sunday; closed Monday.
ADMISSION: $20 general, $17 seniors, $16 ages 13-17 and students with college ID, free for members and ages 12 and under. Prices include a $10 special exhibition surcharge; admission for the permanent collection only is $10. General admission is free the first Tuesday of every month (the $10 surcharge still applies for entry to special exhibitions).
INFORMATION: (415) 750-3600, www.legionofhonor.org
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