Da Vinci's genius designs come to life

SAN ANTONIO — Leonardo da Vinci's multifaceted genius and influence is indisputable.

The "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper" often steal the spotlight. But it could be argued that his hand-rendered engineering visions — dreams of flying machines, walking on water, mechanical efficiency and mighty military weapons — are as aesthetically gorgeous as his most famous paintings.

The Witte Museum here is betting on it.

"We've been trying to get a full-scale Leonardo da Vinci exhibit for a long time," said Marise McDermott, president and CEO of the Witte Museum.

The Witte Museum's "The Genius of Leonardo: Machines in Motion" marks the American debut of the interactive exhibit, which focuses solely on Leonardo's engineering designs and features 40 full-scale operational machines based on those designs, including a suit of armor that activates when one walks near it.

"We're the first ones to have it in the United States. It's such a mind blower," McDermott said.

The exhibit runs through Sept. 7.

Evergreen President Mark Greenberg said visitors should be impressed by how many of the models — which are built with materials, tools and technology from Leonardo's lifetime — they will be able to operate.

"It's most of them, over 30 you can touch and turn handles and make wheels move and so forth," said Greenberg. "The vast majority are hands-on activities."

Within reason. Don't expect to fly away on his winged contraptions. The parachute is off limits. So is the multibarrel machine gun.

The exhibit includes "Leonardo's Workshop," where visitors can build an arch, construct a self-supporting bridge, operate a model submarine, test the flight patterns of paper birds, use a perspectograph for drawing and manipulate a small catapult.

The exhibit will be complemented by virtual reality apprentices "that are paintings sort of like in 'Harry Potter' that come to life and talk to you," McDermott said.