True genius on display at Venetian

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The "Mona Lisa" has a few secrets. Twenty-five, to be exact.

Did you know the masterpiece was painted on wood and not canvas? It’s true. That tends to shock people when they hear that secret, says Pascal Cotte, the French engineer who studied Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting. For years, Cotte examined the "Mona Lisa" using a high-resolution digital camera. And he’s not finished.

Some of the secrets he discovered are part of "Da Vinci – The Genius" exhibit at The Venetian, 3355 Las Vegas Blvd South. The exhibit, presented by Imagine Exhibitions, will be on display through Oct. 15.

Though none of the pieces exhibited are authentic da Vinci works, they are masterful likenesses. You can see high-resolution photographs of the "Mona Lisa" in both her current state and in what Cotte believes is the painting’s original state. His research enabled him to identify the true colors of the artwork, which have faded and changed over time.

The exhibit features several aspects of da Vinci’s work. Facsimiles of his notebooks, called codices, are on display, showing how the artist wrote in a mirror image, from right to left. Sketches of some of his machines were brought to life; you can see what the first helicopter looked like as well as a life-sized example of an ancient wetsuit. Da Vinci did a lot of work with the military, says Tom Zaller, president of Imagine Exhibitions.

There are also a few other contraptions on display that can only be called possible death machines. One was designed to be pulled by horse and maybe decapitate enemies, Zaller says.

If you have any fascination with da Vinci or Dan Brown’s novel "The da Vinci Code," you may feel right at home at "Da Vinci – The Genius."

The exhibit is open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. For more information, call 414-9000.

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@review journal.com or 702-380-4564. Follow @StripSonya on Twitter.