The name Leonardo da Vinci is the first thing that comes to your mind, the enigmatic smile of Mona Lisa or the stunning precision of The Last Supper? You may think immediately of his drawing of the flying machine so many centuries before its time. To me, Leonardo means unbridled curiosity and unbridled creativity. He was not just a painter or inventor; he was a thinker, executor, and ever-boundless expander of the frontiers of the impossible. Ever since young, I always heard from people how da Vinci was such a genius. My art teacher never seemed to tire of speaking of him, especially the minute observation which he made in the way water flows, birds flap their wings. Amazing it might well sound, but till reading his life story later in my life, he had not struck my mind to tell how brilliant this genius was. Leonardo da Vinci taught us such a subtle unwrapped truth that the world is full of magic, only if we observe.
Leonardo da Vinci – Who Was He?
Leonardo was born in 1452 in a small village called Vinci, in what today is called Italy. Imagine just how this man could live in a time with no cars, no electricity, and no Internet, yet be the most celebrated figure in history. He was a painter, a scientist, an engineer, a mathematician; he even was a musician. More shortly, all those things that required imagination and intellect, Leonardo did.
In his case, it was insatiable curiosity; he was never satisfied with knowing one thing. Leonardo wanted to know how this whole thing worked and wasn’t satisfied with mere observation; hence he experimented, he did the dissections, sketched, and documented everything in sight.
Leonardo’s Artistic Legacy
When we think of Leonardo as an artist, his two most famous works immediately come to our mind, the first of which is:
1. Mona Lisa
The Mona Lisa probably is the most famous picture in the world. Her enigmatic smile has enshrined her in people’s hearts for centuries. What can be found so special in this picture? Leonardo used a technique called sfumato. Colors merge so nicely, and there are no sharp lines. It gives her face that soft, life-like glow.
2. The Last Supper
It’s a painting, but in a really strange and impossible way, it can be a story frozen as if in amber. This painting displays an exact moment when Jesus Christ decides to tell his disciples that somebody among them will betray him. Each figure shows some reaction different from another in displaying Leonardo’s extraordinary presentation of human emotion.
Few people know that Leonardo seldom finished his paintings; he was the kind of perfectionist who was always perfecting his works.
Leonardo the Scientist
The notebooks of Leonardo form one treasure of ideas and observations-from detailed studies on human anatomy to drafts of machines that would not see the light of day before many centuries.
But unbelievable feats he had to do with his study of the human body: he studied corpses, that is, dissection for the understanding of muscles, bones, and organs; the anatomy drawings he made have been so exact that they are considered scientifically right even today.
And there were his inventions including flying machines, tanks, and even a predecessor to the modern helicopter. None actually to be built in his time, but a glimpse from his foresight.
Lessons from Leonardo
What is something to be learned from Leonardo da Vinci?
1. Stay Curious
Leonardo asked himself: Why does the sky look blue? How can birds fly? This drive to investigate things led him to research as diversified as the fields of: botany, physics, and astronomy.
2. Embrace Failure*
Not all of Leonardo’s experiments came out right. Many of his inventions were impractical. Some of his projects he never finished. But that didn’t stop him from trying.
3. Connect the Dots
Leonardo did not treat art and science as two different arts. For him, both these arts merged into one. His anatomy would turn him into a far superior artist while his artist’s visualization helped him in scientific explorations.
4. Be a Lifelong Learner
At a relatively young age also, Leonardo continued his frenzy to learn. There is always something to be learned, he felt.
In Conclusion,Leonardo da Vinci’s genius was not limited to his time but in fact was an ongoing concern of artists, scientists, and inventors from the High Renaissance onwards. And it is this more than anything that we admire about him today, not necessarily what he did but rather how he thought.
The story of Leonardo thus taught me that we do not have to fit our square pegs into singular boxes. You can be an artist *and* a scientist. A dreamer *and* a doer. We all can aspire- just like Leonardo explore, create, and leave the world just a little bit better than how we found it.