Leonardo da Vinci: Part I

Leonardo da Vinci, circa 1510

Leonardo da Vinci was arguably the best painter of his day. And yet, he was also a visionary engineer who designed and built ideas well ahead of their time, drawing up gadgets such as helicopters, tanks, diving suits, and vehicles with motorized engines. On top of that, he was a great scientist, dedicating many pages of his notes to human anatomy, much of which came from personal experience conducting dissections of human cadavers, in which he carefully recorded the structure of bones, the layering of muscles, and the intricate web of veins and nerves. These studies led to some of the most accurate anatomical drawings, influencing medical understanding for centuries. As one biographer wrote about Leonardo, he was an "all-sided genius" who "loved beauty."

How Leonardo achieved such remarkable talent in so many diverse disciplines is something this snapshot biography will explore. But at the foundation must be his curiosity. It seemed to know no bounds. Leonardo lived wanting to know everything about everything, asking basic yet profound questions such as, "Why is the sky blue?" or "How do birds sustain themselves in the air?" He'd walk around finding wonder in the most ordinary things, such as how light touched the world while observing the most minute details in how it did so. In many ways, he was the ultimate Renaissance man.

Ironically, though, for all his remarkable achievements and work, Leonardo was known for working slowly, often unfocused, switching between and not completing many of the projects he had started. Sometimes, this even included paid commissions. And though he is often remembered as a painter, he only finished about twenty works throughout his life. His most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, took him about sixteen years to complete.

Perhaps this blend of brilliance and imperfection contributes to making Leonardo so enduring. As his unfinished works serve as reminders that even the greatest minds are not immune to distraction and that curiosity is both a gift and, at times, a challenge.

The following is Leonardo’s story.

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"Wisdom is the daughter of experience." - Leonardo da Vinci