'Leonardo Live' art exhibit at a movie theater near you Feb. 16

This February, a first-of-its-kind cinema event will debut in movie theaters across the country featuring Leonardo Live, the first-ever high-definition tour of a fine art exhibition created for movie theater audiences. Presented by NCM Fathom, BY Experience and PhilGrabskyFilms.com, Leonardo Live will hit the big screen on Thursday, Feb. 16, at 7:00 p.m. local time. During this unprecedented event, audiences will experience the UK’s National Gallery’s sold out exhibition Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan. Captured live in HD in November 2011 just before its opening, Leonardo Live provides a virtual walk-through of the show, with exclusive commentary from scholars and curators. Hosted by highly respected art historian Tim Marlow and presenter Mariella Frostrup, the exhibition brings together the largest number of da Vinci’s rare surviving paintings and some international loans. While numerous exhibitions have looked at da Vinci as an inventor, scientist or draftsman, this is the first to be dedicated to his aims and techniques as a painter.

Tickets for Leonardo Live are available at participating theater box offices and online at www.FathomEvents.com. For a complete list of theater locations and prices, visit the NCM Fathom website (theaters and participants are subject to change). The event will be broadcast to nearly 450 select movie theaters across the country through NCM’s exclusive Digital Broadcast Network.

“Due to the fragility of these priceless works of art, this exhibition unfortunately cannot physically tour,” said Dan Diamond, senior vice president of NCM Fathom. “But through this extraordinary in-theater event, moviegoers and art lovers alike will have the opportunity to experience this highly-anticipated gallery presentation as if they were there.”

Featuring the finest paintings and drawings by the famed Italian Renaissance polymath and his followers, Leonardo Live showcases paintings, including the “Belle Ferronière” (Musée du Louvre, Paris), the “Madonna Litta” (The State Hermitage, Saint Petersburg), as well as the newly discovered, never-exhibited painting, the “Salvator Mundi.” The exhibition will also feature a near-contemporary, full-scale copy of the “Last Supper,” on loan from The Royal Academy of Arts, London. Additionally, two versions of the “Virgin of the Rocks” – belonging to the National Gallery and the Louvre – will be shown together for the first time during this one-night HD presentation.