CHRISTIAN GÁLVEZ. Móstoles, 1980. In Spain it is famous as the presenter of Pasapalabra. Overseas is a well-respected expert on Leonardo da Vinci. Now publish the essay Gioconda unknown, and is the curator of an exhibition in Madrid (Palace of the Jewels and the National Library) on the occasion of the 500 years of the death of the Italian.

How could a guy that takes eleven years in the thick of the tv, without leaving just typing a treaty of 598 pages about The mona lisa?At first I had no intention of writing absolutely nothing, but when I started to read Leonardo, I realized that what he wrote about himself was far short of that patina of genius that we’ve given after. I set out to write the best biography of Leonardo, of the story, but I discovered that it was already written: The flight of the mind, Charles Nicholl. So I wrote a novel (to Kill Leonardo da Vinci) and it was good, but I kept researching on the face of Leonardo, I published my first book of essays (Leonardo: face-to-face) and that was the turning point in which doubled my life: the television and the researcher.Did you study teaching, and English Philology. Nothing to do with the Art and the Story.I wanted to be a teacher, until tv I changed the plans. I did not finish any of the two races. I left Magisterium because when I was in Desperate social club not gave me permission to go to the exams. When he finished that program I got to work in a toy store, and the opportunity arose to do who Falls. And in that test all of my peers had journalism, but I caught myself because I knew to speak English. And I decided to study Philology to enhance that, but not in CQC I could submit to the tests, so that also the left. I was angry and, in the end, I have dedicated my life to self-education.At what point you got Leonardo in the head until you reach this point of fixation?That November of 2009 I saw The last supper for the first time, in Milan, and still coleaba The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown. As I am also a member of the Spanish Association of Sindonology (study of the Holy Shroud), the book mezclase all that and point to Leonardo as the creator of the Shroud attracted me, but there I don’t get caught: regardless of what is or ceases to be the Holy Shroud, there is a selling document, to the House of Savoy in 1453, and Leonardo was born in 52. By the very genius that is… And that prostitution both of the top Sheet as a Da Vinci I mosqueó and I started to read to Leonardo instead of on him. And already I was hooked. What will you be hooked?Everything that I wrote about it without having read even. For example, in Spain: before the 75 was hetero and a catholic, after the 75 was gay and heretic. The two things are false. Leonardo practiced celibacy since the age of 24 to 67 with any sexual orientation would be from a platonic view. And in terms of religion, was bipolar, and in their codices you can find the same attitude nihilistic that a catholicism of the manual. It is not etiquetable. What would you think Leonardo if you saw the myth that there is around 500 years later?I would not give credit. The label “genius” grant us today without considering a lot about what it means. According to the RAE is the capacity that we have to do things different and worthy of admiration. It is worth it. Leonardo did things different and worthy of admiration. It is worth it. But if that is all, how many geniuses there are right now in this building? It is a very broad definition. Leonardo died, failed, and sad because it was illegitimate, illiterate, with a high probability of being dyslexic, bipolar, attention deficit… And despite that he never gave up. But it failed in Florence, Milan, Venice, Rome, and suffered what you suffer young people today: brain drain. Had to go to France.Come on, the renaissance man par excellence did everything to see if I could something to work.What is an excellent prototype of a universal man? Yes. What served him for something? No. Do you appreciate that in your time? Either. We should clarify that today is a genius, but in his life he was an outcast. People think of the Renaissance and think of Leonardo over that of michelangelo, but people don’t know that 50% of works not completed, that 50% of their inventions were not their own, another 25% were not working… And it is no less genius for it. He did not invent the parachute, but he picked up the idea and designed one that was tested in the year 2000, and it worked. Oh, that is amazing! Enhances much more when Leonardo failed that the that had success. For example, the tank. You mount the tank Leonardo and does not work: it turns on itself and does not advance. Leonardo rarely completed and produced his designs. Now you jump from artist to his most emblematic work: ‘La Gioconda’. Do you not fancy a change?I’m not a great expert in the Renaissance, I’m a specialist in Leonardo, and wanted to keep writing about it, but with a point of view not very tired. In this case I wanted to try the focus point of the female portrait, the role of women at that time, because when we talk of the Renaissance it seems that there were only men.Sorry if I am sacrilegious, but what it is for both ‘The Gioconda’?No. It is not a big box, but it is a marketing campaign awesome. The great biographies contemporary of Leonardo speak of The last supper as his masterpiece, a fresco of the king of France wanted to dismantle the wall and take her. And the last comment that also painted the portrait of a lady florentine. Point ball. But in the NINETEENTH century comes, the unification of Italy and within that search for national identity, recover their great: Dante, Petrarch, michelangelo, Raphael… What about Leonardo? Then the French say: “Leonardo is buried in France and we have La Gioconda”. And the box becomes a symbol, an object of desire of the new Italy, which reaches its peak when an Italian’s stolen from the Louvre in 1911. And that the mitifica. Came more people to the Louvre to see the void that was left for her to see the box when I was. And when France recovers it is just becoming a national symbol for the two countries, which still use it as a weapon. What did France when he won the World? Dress up the mona lisa with her t-shirt. And who bothered? To the italians.We will, that we have been sold a bit of smoke…All the time. Each two-by-three we read large headlines: “Discovered the secret of The Gioconda”. I was sick and I had bruxism, or was pregnant, or had gonorrhea… Look, The mona lisa has only one disease: the fear that has the Louvre to restore it. Do not dare or they are interested in because it has been built as an icon and a business around a particular image. If you clean the image, lose the yellow. But Leonardo did not paint a mona lisa yellow is simply yellow of old. From there you can do all the literature you want.As to his true identity.The other great mystery. The testimonios of the time do not match with respect to whether she was Lisa Gherardini. Don’t know for sure and I don’t think that is going to know. It is not impossible, but to achieve this we should find to Lisa Gherardini, to certify that is it, take DNA samples, contrast… As we’re trying to find Leonardo.That’s ‘Leonardo’ DNA Project’ sounds a little movie of secret societies with a cape and mask.No, No. It is a scientific project and nothing secret. It is a compendium of specialists in all fields: geneticists, medical examiners, anthropologists, biologists, historians, specialists in Leonardo da Vinci’s… joined with the end goal of finding DNA is not corrupt Leonardo to resolve from a scientific point of view many open questions.How camest thou in such an organization?When I published Leonardo: face-to-face, two years ago, I was invited to join. My work is the search for biological remains in the original manuscripts of Leonardo. I have been collaborating with the National Library, there are two codices and I do historical documentation to try to learn what parts of these originals could be their DNA. What parts touched, what parts touched his executor… from there, the professionals at the genetics of different centers are responsible for removing fingerprints, hair and saliva. Another task that we have as researchers is to find out where he is buried, Caterina da Vinci, his mother, to obtain the mitochondrial DNA.And the rosco, what? Where do you get time for all this?Therefore sacrifice many hobbies. I would love to follow in the football team with your colleagues, or play more hours to Play or read more comics. But I can’t. My life are the tele and Leonardo.Do you have the side that you take it seriously in the academic sphere?I’ve had to face a lot of prejudices. But long ago I stopped to fight that battle, because it does not take me to any part. If people want to consume the product that I make, cool. If not, nothing happens. I’ve focused my career to that everything I do will make me a better person, and achieves this. And that’s it. Has cost Me a lot more to earn respect in Spain than outside. Outside I am nobody, but I have opened the doors with great generosity and have appreciated my work. And only when I returned with that endorsement, international, here, have taken me seriously. I went from being one more of the tv that writes books to an international expert on Leonardo. It is a prejudice fool, a bitch, because I am the same. I’m just the guy who reads fast on the tele and flipa Leonardo. That’s the summary of my life.But the tv itself will help to sell books.Inside the tv there are two types of writers: the one who does it for passion and that makes him to exploit his image. But if anyone gets a person closer to a book, is already a miracle to applaud. Make No mistake, I am another kind of tv that writes books. I do not deny that. I sell a personal brand and professional from eleven years ago: Christian Galvez, a guy who works in a cultural contest of entertainment. That is my mark before and after Leonardo. What keeps motivating television?I still motivating Pasapalabra. Because I do not wont anything else, although I would love to return to do a talent show like You yes that vouchers. There’s a part of me, as an audio-visual communicator, which take up a lot less direct. And what about the ‘prime time’?There is a wonderful phrase of Leonardo that says “once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth looking at the sky and there always want to return because you were”. You apply it to prime time live. I tried it and I liked it so much that I would like to repeat, but do not sacrifice themselves Pasapalabra for it. After many years as leaders of hearing, he has now surpassed ‘ – Boom!’ How do you handle being second?Well, it is the greatness of the tv: one can not relax. As we suffer the decisions that come from above. We removed one month of issuance by the World means that the people who don’t like football looking for competitions in another string. We are a collateral damage of the decisions of others. But it’s healthy competition because we know that there are more people that plays and plays very well. Juanra (Bonet) is doing great, has been mate of mine and he is a guy great. A League where all the years to win Barca is a pain in the neck. In addition, it consolidates the bet of that culture and entertainment can be mixed and succeed, and occasionally it’s cool to release the pressure of having to be leaders every day, that it is now up to them. To us compels us to evolve and keeps us from sleep. Now you have to tighten.

According to the criteria of

Learn more