"The noblest pleasure," da Vinci once wrote,
"is the joy of understanding."
Centuries before the Wright brothers lifted off the ground in the first airplane, a man from the quiet countryside of central Italy sketched a picture of a human flying device. This man was one of the greatest thinkers of the Renaissance, and, perhaps, one of the most imaginative individuals ever to live! His name was Leonardo da Vinci.
Da Vinci's flying device was only one of the many inventions and theories he developed during his lifetime. His constant curiosity and love of learning made him a detailed painter, sculptor, and observer of the world around him. As a true Renaissance man, da Vinci excelled at many different things. He studied architecture, engineering, literature, geology, astronomy, botany, paleontology, cartography, and more. The brilliant artist even created the most detailed study of the human body before the 20th century!
EARLY LIFE
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was born on April 14, 1452, during the height of the Renaissance. His full name tells historians a lot about him. It means, "Leonardo, (son) of Ser Piero (from) Vinci." As his name tells us, da Vinci was from the city of Vinci in the Tuscan region of Italy. His father was a wealthy attorney and notary
(a person authorized to draw up contracts and other legal documents), and his mother was a peasant named Caterina. His parents were never married, and, from the age of five, his father raised him. Although da Vinci's father was married four times, and da Vinci had 17 half-siblings, he was raised as an only child as his brothers and sisters weren't born until he was an adult.
Da Vinci likely spent his days surrounded by the rolling hills of nearby Tuscany as a young boy. There, he developed a love of nature that would follow him throughout his life. At the age of five, Leonardo headed to school, where he learned to read, write, and do simple math. Although he received only a basic education, historians think that da Vinci had access to scholarly works and probably read books owned by his father and friends. He also probably saw the works of art in the city of Vinci, and, as a boy, he showed great promise as an artist. Not far from da Vinci's
home was the flourishing city of Florence, the center of the Italian Renaissance. Florence was the perfect place to grow da Vinci's skill as an artist, and, at the age of 14, his father sent him to work with a master.
He was apprenticed to the workshop of a sculptor and painter named Verrocchio, one of the most popular artists of the time. Da Vinci thrived under Verrocchio's guidance and excelled in drawing, painting, woodworking, metallurgy,
drafting, chemistry, leatherworking, and more despite his limited schooling.
Like all apprentices, da Vinci worked with his master to become a great artist. He was unique, however, as unlike most apprentices, his talent was far greater than even that of his master. It is said that da Vinci once helped Verrocchio on one of the workshop's many paintings. Da Vinci was instructed to paint one of the angels in Verrocchio's work, The Baptism of Christ. The story goes that da Vinci's angel was
Da Vinci was left-handed and often wrote backward to avoid smudging the ink on the paper. These backward journal entries can only be read in a mirror.
so much better than his master's that Verrocchio put down his paintbrush and declared that he would never paint again!
With his extraordinary talent and hard work, da Vinci qualified as a master artist at the young age of 20 years old. In fact, many of the works painted by Verrocchio's workshop during the time of da Vinci's apprenticeship show hints of the young artist's genius. Da Vinci continued to work under Verrocchio until he was 26 when he finally took the plunge to break out on his own.
DA VINCI THE ARTIST
Although da Vinci is known today as a Renaissance man with many talents, he was, first and foremost, an artist. As a master painter and sculptor, da Vinci earned his living creating artwork for various patrons (wealthy individuals or families who paid artists to create art). Several years after leaving Verrocchio's workshop, the Duke of Milan hired da Vinci. The artist worked for him for 17 years. During this
time, da Vinci studied nature and anatomy to make his subjects more lifelike than was common for the time, and his brilliant math skills gave his paintings both depth and distance. His ability to blend mathematics and art is perhaps best seen in his famous drawing, Vitruvian Man. This drawing shows da Vinci's amazing eye for proportions. It is a sketch of a man who fits perfectly inside both a circle and a square.
Even during his lifetime, da Vinci enjoyed a level of fame that was unusual. Friendly and humble, he found it easy to make friends and attract admirers. As his interests were varied, he found himself putting his curious mind to work for the duke, not only as a painter, but an engineer, musician, architect, and sculptor.
One of da Vinci's most ambitious works of art was a statute of the Duke of Milan's father on horseback that was supposed to be over 20 feet tall. Da Vinci spent years studying horse anatomy and even wrote a book about his findings. Leonardo's Horse, as it is known today, was unfortunately never completed. When the French military invaded Milan, da Vinci's clay model of the sculpture was shot to pieces. The artist never finished the complete bronze sculpture.
Try your hand at recreating da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man." First, close your eyes and picture a human being. Try to imagine how long their torso is. Next, think about the length of their arms and legs. When you are done, you're ready to draw! Start by drawing a large circle. Then, draw a square somewhere on top of the circle. Finally, try to draw the human being that you imagined inside of both the circle and the square so that no part of their body is outside of the lines.
Like Leonardo's Horse, few of da Vinci's works were ever finished, and even fewer survive today. One of da Vinci's surviving works is called The Last Supper. This famous scene depicts Jesus' last meal with his twelve apostles. It was painted on a wall inside the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy.
This mural has been restored so often throughout history that little of the original painting remains. During World War II, the building was struck by bombs, and the art was almost destroyed entirely!
Da Vinci's most famous work of art, and, arguably, the most renowned painting in the world, was completed after leaving the duke's service. This painting is called the Mona Lisa. It was likely begun around 1503, though the artist didn't complete it until about 1519.
The Mona Lisa was the last painting that da Vinci ever worked on. Some scholars even argue that it was never truly finished! Today, the Mona Lisa lives in the Louvre Museum in Paris, where it is visited by approximately 6 million people every year. For centuries, people have looked at this work and wondered, who is the woman in the painting? Most likely, Mona Lisa was Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant. The picture has been in France since the 16th century ever since it was acquired by da Vinci's friend, the King of France, Francis I. Interestingly, the Mona Lisa did not become internationally famous until it was stolen from the museum in 1911. The theft made the painting a media sensation across the globe before it was found two years later!
DA VINCI THE LEARNER
While da Vinci worked primarily as an artist, he was also an avid learner who studied the world around him. He was so curious that he rarely finished any of his work. Instead, he jumped from project to project as new ideas came to him. While working for the duke, the artist only completed six paintings, though he started many others. Da Vinci's active mind was a huge benefit to him as it allowed him to do many different jobs for his patrons.
During his time in Milan and after, da Vinci advised Italian leaders on projects that ranged from architecture to military strategy. He did this all while establishing himself as a top Renaissance artist. While working on a project designing war devices, da Vinci realized that he needed a way to record his ideas. To keep track of his brilliant thoughts, the artist wrote his ideas on loose sheets of paper that he carried around with him while observing the world. Historians suspect that da Vinci began to keep these journals in his 30s. This habit stayed with him for the rest of his life. It is estimated that da Vinci produced between 20,000 and 28,000 pages of notes and sketches. About 7,200 pages still exist today for historians to study.
These journals reveal that, although da Vinci was an artist, he saw science as an important part of his work. For him, science and art were entwined with one another in incredible ways. He saw the world as a place to be observed and strove for understanding. Through his observations, he developed many questions that he wanted to answer. Upon seeing birds flying through the air, da Vinci once set out to determine how the animals accomplished this incredible feat. It has been said that he would even buy caged birds in town only to set them free and observe their flight. Da Vinci developed theories about anatomy, nature, and design through research, study, and sketches.
His process of discovery was incredibly useful, and, in his notebooks, da Vinci conceptualized solar power, calculators, a basic theory about
the structure of the earth's crust, and more. Though many of da Vinci's inventions would not have worked if they had been built, they
Da Vinci's journal, Codex Leicester, discusses fossils, water movement, and the moon. In 1994, it was purchased for $30,802,500 by Microsoft founder Bill Gates!
showed his remarkable ability to imagine a different world than the one that existed in Renaissance Italy. Da Vinci believed that an individual encompassed a body, a mind, and a soul and that learning was a rewarding part of life itself.
"Learning," he wrote, "is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets."
None of Da Vinci's studies were published in his lifetime, but after his death, many pages of his handwritten notes were bound together into a type of book called a codex. These many codices show the thousands of sketches
and designs developed by the thinker over his lifetime.
Though his friends and associates were aware of his genius while he was alive, the public would not know how truly inventive da Vinci was until his notebooks were published for people to read.
Although da Vinci never built or tested many of his inventions, his ideas seemed as if they had been plucked from the future, and his contributions to science were far ahead of their time. He envisioned and sketched automobiles, scuba gear, machine guns, and many other inventions that would be created by other people hundreds of years after the Renaissance. After da Vinci's death, Francis I, the King of France and da Vinci's final patron, reportedly said, "There has never been another man born in the world who knew as much as Leonardo."
And to this day, Leonardo da Vinci stands out as one of the greatest thinkers in human history.