Gabriele Niccolai, an engineering model maker from Florence, Italy, stands next to one of the models he's created from the original drawings of renaissance master mind Leonardo Di Vinci at the Sydney preview of the DA VINCI SECRETS - 'Anatomy to Robots' exhibition.
The models created by Gabriele Niccolai from the original drawings from the renaissance master show Da Vinci's amazing understanding for mechanics.
A model of Da Vinci's famous flying wing created as part of the travelling exhibition.
The Florentine team behind the show's exhibits are Elena Sardelli, who created the anatomical models, Gabriele Niccolai, responsible for the engineering models and Fresco artist Antonio de Vito at the opening address for the DA VINCI SECRETS - 'Anatomy to Robots' exhibition.
Detail of the chest pullies inside Robot - Complete Mechanism, created from the original drawings found in the Da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus F579r and reproduced by Gabriele Niccolai.
A model shows the discoveries Da Vinci made about the structure of the human body and documented through his detailed sketches and drawings.
Was Da Vinci's Robot - Motion of the Arms, recreated from drawings in the Codex Atlanticus F579r, really the inspiration for the YouTube classic?
Detail of the Robot Motion of the Arms created by engineer Gabriele Niccolai from drawings in the Codex Atlanticus F579r.
Detail of the Robot Drummer created by engineer Gabriele Niccolai from the original sketches.
Detail of the Robot Drummer. The tempo of the drum beats can be altered by changing the grooves the pin runs down as the mechanical handle is turned.
Detail of the Robot Drummer (from the Codex Atlanticus 55r) created by Gabriele Niccolai.
A model of a device for breathing underwater on show at DA VINCI SECRETS - 'Anatomy to Robots' exhibition at the Lower Level of Sydney Town Hall, which runs from May 20 - August 2, 2010.
Detail of the Robot - Complete Mechanism, created from the original drawings found in the Da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus F579r and reproduced by engineer Gabriele Niccolai.
A guest looks at a model of 'Robot - complete mechanism' at the DA VINCI SECRETS - 'Anatomy to Robots' exhibition at the Lower Level of Sydney Town Hall
Fresco artist Antonio de Vito works on a copy of Da Vinci's famous Last Supper at DA VINCI SECRETS - 'Anatomy to Robots' exhibition at the Lower Level of Sydney Town.
Fancy flight ... Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 has been emblazoned with Sports Illustrated cover girl Bar Refael.
Cover-up girl ... the design is to celebrate Bar Refaeli being on the cover of the magazine's annual swimsuit issue.
Take off ... the Boeing 737-700, which will fly between New York and Las Vegas will bear the sexy image on its fuselage for a limited time.
Hands up ... the model is pictured lying seductively in a revealing white bikini along the length of the plane.
What a cop ... Bar Refaeli poses with policemen holding the 2009 cover of Sports Illustrated. 
Undressing ... the plane was unveiled at La Guardia aiport in New York. 
Clothed in controversy ... Sir Richard Branson gets to grips with Kyla Ebbert. In 2007 Ms Ebbert was allegedly thrown off a Southwest Airlines flight for wearing a revealing outfit. 
Classic freak art, painted 100 years ago, but available to hang on your wall today!
Apper chimps, Chewbacca lookalikes called Lionel and the monstrous ‘Homme Poisson’ (Fish-man). That’s what the Victorians used to have to amuse themselves with – this was, after all, long before the invention of reality TV shows.
These beautifully-painted images were used to advertise freakshows and circuses between about 1880 and 1930 (although mainly in the first decade of the 20th Century), and come from the collection of the late Jaap Best, the Dutch king of this sort of thing.
Some of the freaks are famous – the Jade Goodies of their day. Lionel, for instance was highly regarded as both a raconteur and wit who could speak five languages and as a very hairy man who was called Lionel and looked a bit like a lion. Others, like L’Homme Poisson, may have been acclaimed as “The greatest wonder in the world” at the time, but have since proved themselves to be as memorable as Saskia or Sandy. 
Other bodily dysmorphic megastars have been lost entirely in the mists of history, leaving only feverish and absinthe-addled artists’ impressions. Did the spider lady (opposite page) really look like that? Was “Princess Elizabeth” really smaller than a cockatoo? We may never care.
It’s interesting how the obsessions of the time reflect those of today. Look at the fat people! Hang on, this woman is too thin! Hey, is that a well-dressed chimp or what?! Okay maybe not the last one. But still, freak art… Le freak, c’est chic.
I can't wait to see this Stones doco 'Stones in Exile', which has just premiered in Cannes. I've seen the Stones twice, once in Auckland in Western Springs in the late 90's, then again in London at Wembley Stadium. Both times they were AMAZING!
The music is fantastic & Mick is an absolutely electric performer, with his larger than life strutting and pouting. You can't keep your eyes off him, and Keith is painfully cool, with his well-practiced opening line "I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be anywhere, really!" It always gets a laugh!
Keith
Brian & Anita
Like Kate Moss & Sienna Miller et al, the Stones 70's boho/rock looks has inspired stylistas & dedicated followers of fashion ever since. WAGs such as Marianne Faithful and Anita Pallenberg, then later Bianca Jagger and Jerry Hall epitomised 60 to 70's style.
Keith & Anita
The wide-eyed, pretty blonde fledgling folk singer the Stones aged 19 at a party in swinging London in 1964 and quickly captured Mick's attention. Several of the Stone's best songs were said to be inspired by Mick's teenage girlfriend, Marianne Faithfull, including 'Sympathy for the Devil', 'Wild Horses' and Marianne herself penned 'Sister Morphine'.
One of the most famous Marianne stories is when the Stones were arrested at Keith's house Sussex, with Marianne clad in nothing but a fur rug. The stigma of this event still haunts her "It destroyed me. To be a male drug addict and to act like that is always enhancing and glamourising. A woman in that situation becomes a slut and a bad mother". She split with Mick in 1970. In 1979 she hit pay-dirt with her solo album, Broken English, with her beautiful song 'The Ballad of Lucy Jordan' going ballistic...
Jo & Ronnie Wood, Marianne, Kate & Anita, circa 1990's
The Nicaraguan beauty met Mick after a Stones gig in 1970 & they married a year in St Tropez later while she was pregnant with their daughter Jade. Wearing an immaculately tailored, plunging white Saville Row suit sans shirt instead of a wedding dress cemented her role as a style icon.
They divorced in 1978, after Bianca discovered Mick's affair with Jerry Hall.
The leggy 70's supermodel (far left, in this fabulous 1978 Helmut Newton shot for French Vogue) couldn't have been more different to the sultry Bianca - all long legs, blonde sunshiny hair & Texan twang, Jerry met Mick at a dinner party in 1977 when she was with rock-star & Roxy Music singer Brain Ferry - natch!
An affair ensued, with Mick writing one of my fave songs 'Miss You' (1978) about Jerry:
They had 4 children but the marriage petered to a predictable end in 1999 when Mick was found to have got another woman, model Luciana Gimenez pregnant.
The Rolling Stones are STYLE. Even their progeny have inherited that innate style (and many a fabulous retro wardrobe) had their fair of modelling success - Lizzie and Georgia Jagger, Theodora Richards and Leah Wood.
But what better way to finish than with 'Keef' - still rocking his signature look & fronting the Louis Vuitton campaign in.
