Masters in Motion

On the surface, Leonardo da Vinci and Norman Rockwell don't seem to have much in common.

Except, maybe, this: Each was brilliant, da Vinci in imagining things that might be and Rockwell in recording American life as it was -- or, at least, as we'd like to imagine it was -- during the heyday of the American Century.

Now, a happy holiday coincidence offers Southern Nevadans the opportunity to explore the work of the two masters in interactive public exhibits.

"The Da Vinci Experience," hosted by the city of Henderson, is on display at the Henderson Events Plaza. The traveling exhibit features physical representations of several examples of the artist/inventor/scientist's work, based on drawings taken from his own journals.

And, on Saturday, Town Square Las Vegas opens as part of its Yuletide celebration "Norman Rockwell Holidays," in which several of the artist's iconic holiday-themed covers are turned into life-size, 3-D displays.

"The Da Vinci Experience" is a traveling exhibit that has its origins in Florence, Italy. Henderson is only its third stop in the United States.

The exhibit features prototypes of more than 60 of da Vinci's inventions and copies of his most famous paintings.

Da Vinci's notebooks contain more than 13,000 pages of notes and drawings. Using those drawings, craftsmen created actual life-size items using materials and techniques that would have been used in da Vinci's time, says Andrea Primo, interim director of Henderson's cultural arts and tourism department.

The exhibit includes viewing galleries devoted to transportation, military and mechanical devices. Included among the displays are replicas of da Vinci's prototypes for the first bicycle, the first car, the first helicopter and the first parachute.

Primo says visitors have been surprised that so many of da Vinci's inventions -- a hang glider, for instance -- look so similar to their modern-day counterparts.

"He was just a visionary," Primo says. "And another interesting point is that he was working on the military tank at the same time he was painting 'The Last Supper.' He had a lot of things going on concurrently."

A more modern-day visionary can be appreciated in "Norman Rockwell Holidays," which takes several of the famed artist's iconic holiday-themed paintings and reimagines them as life-size exhibits.

"It's a really unique concept that we're thrilled to be able to bring to Town Square Las Vegas," says Vicki Rousseau, Town Square's marketing director.

The new center, which offers dining, shopping and outdoor strolling, is "designed to be a gathering place and focal point" for valley residents, she says. "So when we looked at what holiday decor would fit -- what the overall theme of the project was -- I don't think you can get any more American or town-squarish than Norman Rockwell."

The project's developers, Turnberry Associates and Centra Properties, enlisted The Becker Group, a Baltimore-based marketing and design firm, to create the exhibit. The company took several of Rockwell's now-iconic holiday covers for The Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentlemen magazine -- including "Santa and His Helpers" from 1922, "Santa Reading Mail" from 1935 and "Grandfather and Boy on Rocking Horse" from 1933 -- and fashioned them into life-size replicas.

Then, Rousseau says, an interactive component was added to the each display. In addition to reading about the painting -- when it was completed, what Rockwell said about it and the like -- viewers can press a button and hear an audio summary that offers a cultural context to each painting.

In addition, featured in a 30-by-30-foot "Santa House" designed to be reminiscent of Rockwell's studio is a 3-D representation of "Triple Self-Portrait," the famous painting of Rockwell at an easel, painting his own portrait with the help of a mirror.

To encourage kids to emulate Rockwell, easels and paints also will be provided so children can create their own self-portraits.

The exhibit will offer parents a chance to become reacquainted with Rockwell and introduce to their children to a part of their own past.

"You grow up hearing about Rockwell and you see many of his works, so parents are going to be able to share a little bit of that," Rousseau says. "A lot of times people see them and may not even realize it was Norman Rockwell. But this will allow us to expose more people to his work and what his inspiration was.

"For many people, Rockwell is such an iconic figure, and everyone grew up with his drawings and illustrations. I think it's just going to be a throwback to a very nostalgic time and a throwback to people's childhoods."

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0280.