Paola Salvi

About the creator

Paola Salvi is recognized as one of the leading national experts on the work and thought of Leonardo da Vinci, with particular focus on his drawings, anatomical and figure studies, theoretical treatises, and modes of representation and visualization. She has been invited to speak at numerous international conferences and symposia on these subjects.

She is the author of dozens of publications, has curated and promoted original events dedicated to the artist, and has served on the scientific committees of the most important Leonardo-related initiatives in recent years. Since 1989, she has been teaching at the Brera Academy, where she also served as Deputy Director. She currently holds the chair of “Semiotics of the Body” in the second-level academic program in Visual Arts. She has also taught History of Drawing at the ICRCPAL in Rome.

In 2016, she conceived and curated the permanent section Leonardo and Anatomy at the Leonardo Museum in Vinci, and she is preparing the exhibition The Brera Academy and Leonardo da Vinci (scheduled for November 2019). She has been part of the scientific committees of major initiatives, including the Leonardo Works Project at ICRCPAL in Rome. She has curated several exhibitions on Leonardo, including: Leonardo. The Genius, the Myth, at the Reggia di Venaria Reale (2011–12); Treasures from the Biblioteca Reale, Turin, at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York (2013–14); Leonardo da Vinci. Drawing the Future, at the Royal Museums of Turin (2019); and Leonardo da Vinci and Guido da Vigevano. Anatomy in Figures, at the Castello Sforzesco in Vigevano (2019).