Original sketches from Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus will go on show in Australia for the first time.
Four pages from the 12-volume set of writings and drawings by the Italian polymath are part of the exhibition Leonardo da Vinci - 500 Years of Genius at The Lume in Melbourne.
One sketch is a study of da Vinci's famous flying machine, while another picture shows a wing that could be operated by a crankshaft.
There's also a plan for a portable bridge to be used in emergencies, and for a mechanism to regulate water flow in a fountain.
Of course, da Vinci was a genius, said Monsignor Alberto Rocca, director of Milan's Biblioteca Ambrosiana, which has housed the Codex Atlanticus since 1637.
To maintain their condition, the drawings can be exhibited for a maximum of 90 days, before being returned to Italy to rest in darkness for three years.
They show a tiny slice of da Vinci's huge imagination but also that he had to work with 15th century technology, Rocca said, explaining that the polymath's flying machines are designed for wood rather than titanium.
The use of technology is central to the exhibition, which features massive, moving projections of the artist's paintings set to music, as well as other innovations designed to bring his work to life - or make it even larger than life.
Da Vinci may have imagined flying machines in the 15th century, but he probably never envisaged an immersive virtual reality flying machine experience (by the company Birdly) designed to simulate soaring over the city of Florence.
Not only that, visitors can watch themselves being rendered as a Leonardo da Vinci sketch, created using artificial intelligence.
Also on show is an exact three-dimensional replica of the Mona Lisa, revealing the painting's front, back and sides using images taken with a 240 million pixel multi-spectral camera.
The camera, which can take pictures at varying depths of paint, has revealed that the Mona Lisa's famous expression was originally painted differently from the image on the surface of the painting, and her face was slightly wider.
Rocca believes the use of multimedia will help visitors contextualise the era of da Vinci's drawings and inventions - and says there's usually more technology at work than people realise.
The Biblioteca Ambrosiana deployed the latest innovations when it was founded in the 17th century and has remained at the cutting edge of conservation technology ever since, Rocca said.
"There is always an exchange between past and present that probably people don't perceive, but is always very high," he told AAP.
On the mezzanine floor of the exhibition are three-dimensional renderings of dozens of da Vinci's inventions, such as diving equipment, a lifebuoy, a military tank and a cart that foreshadows the modern car.
The emergency bridge is one of the three-dimensional replicas and using supplied materials visitors can build their own version in nine easy steps.
'Leonardo da Vinci - 500 Years of Genius' was put together by Australian businessman Bruce Petersen, who found da Vinci's work was often displayed in a way that was either lacking in context or overly academic.
The exhibition is his biggest production yet, and the result of years spent convincing the Italians to lend out the sketches.
Leonardo da Vinci - 500 Years of Genius is at The Lume, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, from Saturday.
Australian Associated Press
