An exhibition‘Medicine and Art’ opened at Mori Art Museum. It is the fruit of nearly 2 years of planning, collaborating with Wellcome Trust and will be exhibited until the end of next February. Since I knew that Wellcome Trust is the largest foundation in the United Kingdom supporting medical research but is also making efforts to promote arts related to medicine, I was very happy to support this project – although there was not much that I could do to contribute.
Mr. and Mrs. Mori, the owner of Mori Art Museum, Mr. Nanjo, the Director of the Museum, and the museum staffs, His Excellency Warren, the Ambassador of UK to Japan, Mr. Kan Suzuki, Vice Minister of MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology), (in Japanese) attended the opening ceremony and reception. I also gave a speech to congratulate the opening.
Among the exhibitions were several valuable drawings of anatomy by Da Vinci. The words were written in ‘mirror writing’. Also at display was a sketch by Michelangelo – a rare piece from the collection of The Royal Collection. Since Michelangelo was a sculptor, he had a habit of burning sketches away one after another so only about 200 pieces are left, the fact which is unbelievable. The paintings at the ceiling and the Last Judgment of Sistine Chapel in Vatican, are widely known as his masterpiece. I remember having an opportunity of seeing some 90 of the sketches by Michelangelo in an exhibition 3 years ago (in Japanese).
A variety of special programs including lectures are offered at ‘Medicine and Art’. I recommend you to visit this special exhibit.