Rui Pastorin in Hong Kong
The Hong Kong French May Arts Festival 2026 has kicked off in Hong Kong, with last week marking the launch of “The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: Meet Mona Lisa & Portraying the Renaissance”, a three-month-long free-admission exhibition at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum that blends both technology and renaissance artworks.
The Hong Kong French May Arts Festival was established in 1993 and reaches over 400,000 visitors per year, according to a recent statement from the organisers, with the event described as one of the largest cultural events in Asia. Continuing to showcase various artforms, more than a hundred programmes are again featured this year.
The festival’s opening highlight programme showcased at the Thematic Galleries 3,4, & 5 of the museum in Sha Tin runs through July 27, being described during last week’s media preview and opening as offering visitors a “hybrid” experience in its presentation.
The first part, “Meet Mona Lisa”, utilises multimedia technology to tell the story behind Leonardo da Vinci’s (1452-1519) renaissance masterpiece while also making it accessible, all across six parts. Museumgoers will get to learn the beginnings of one of the most valuable paintings in the world, which started off as a commissioned portrait of noblewoman Lisa Gherardini, a piece that da Vinci continued to work on for years, though it never reached its patron.
A section also tackles the 1911 theft of the painting from the Louvre Museum by Vincenzo Peruggia, an event that put the Mona Lisa’s face all over the world. The exhibition then explores the result of the theft, as well as the Mona Lisa’s continued impact, making its way onto other artworks all the way to items like mugs and T-shirts.
Enhancing this part’s experience across the different sections is the Mona Lisa itself “narrating” its story, the use of technology such as panoramic projections, and interactive sections including one area that allows museumgoers to zoom in on the masterpiece’s various details and intricacies.
The second section “Portraying the Renaissance” highlights renaissance works, particularly portraits, created through different mediums. Among these pieces are paintings like “The Crucifixion” by Noël Bellemare and Jacob de Backer’s “Venus and Cupid”, plaster reproductions including that of Michelangelo Buonarroti’s “The Rebellious Slave”, and three works from the museum’s collection along with pieces by Nantong-born ink artist Xu Lei. Nantong is a city in Jiangsu Province. Museumgoers also get a chance to view “Sheets from the Codex Atlanticus”, which feature four of Da Vinci’s manuscripts from a collection of drawings and notes.
The two-part exhibition has been designed especially for Hong Kong. The first part was jointly produced by the Musée du Louvre and the Grand Palais Immersif, while curation for the second part of the exhibition was done by the Musée National de la Renaissance – Château d’Écouen, the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, the Ateliers d’art de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux – Grand Palais, and the Atelier de Chalcographie du Louvre.
This article is a continuation of story published on Friday, with more on https://www.macaupostdaily.com/news/28101
* According to AI chatbot Poe, The Renaissance was a rebirth of learning and art in Europe that started in the 1300s and spread through the 1400s–1500s.It was called a “rebirth” because it revived (and improved on) older knowledge - leading to major progress in art, science, and education.
The photos by Rui Pastorin were taken during Thursday’s media visit to the exhibition at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum in Sha Tin.
