Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN-13 : 978-1501139154
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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Introduction
Leonardo da Vinci, despite his genius and achievements, perceived himself as an outsider in Renaissance society. His outsider status may have fueled his drive to challenge established norms and push the boundaries of knowledge in various fields.
Leonardo da Vinci’s illegitimacy, unconventional education, sexuality, and embrace of difference shaped his innovative approach to art and science. Born out of wedlock, he was excluded from the traditional career path of his family, freeing him to pursue his own interests. His lack of formal education in Latin and Greek, typical for aspiring professionals, fostered a reliance on observation and experimentation rather than traditional thinking.
Instead, he embraced experiential learning, becoming a “disciple of experience,” and developed a scientific method that relied on empirical evidence. His open embrace of his homosexuality and vegetarianism, along with his left-handedness and distinctive drawing techniques, further reinforced his unconventional nature and unique perspective.
These factors combined to create in Leonardo an independent and inquisitive mind, unafraid to challenge norms and push the boundaries of knowledge in both art and science.
The Factors
Illegitimacy:
- Born out of wedlock, Leonardo’s outsider status began at birth. Leonardo’s father, Piero da Vinci, was a notary, a legal professional who specialized in drafting and certifying documents, and a respected member of Florentine society. His mother, Caterina, was a peasant from the countryside.
- Leonardo da Vinci had the good luck to be born out of wedlock. Otherwise, he would have been expected to become a notary, like the firstborn legitimate sons in his family stretching back at least five generations. (19, loc. 281-283)
- While illegitimacy wasn’t uncommon in Renaissance Italy, especially among the elite, it posed challenges for those in the middle class, like Leonardo’s family.
- The Arte dei Giuduci e Notai, the guild of judges and notaries in Florence, to which Leonardo’s father belonged, strictly barred illegitimate children, even those who were later legitimized. This restriction was based on the belief that a notary needed to be perfect and have a good reputation.
- Although his father helped arrange Leonardo’s apprenticeship and commissions, he never formally legitimized his son. This decision may have been driven by the hope of having a legitimate heir to continue the family’s notarial tradition.
- In addition, when Leonardo’s father, Piero, died without a will, his estate was divided among his legitimate sons, excluding Leonardo. Although Leonardo was Piero’s eldest son, he received no inheritance. The ambiguity surrounding Leonardo’s legal status as an illegitimate son ultimately led to conflict with his half-brothers and highlighted the limitations imposed by his birth.
- Leonardo’s illegitimacy created ambiguity in his social standing and limited his career options. He benefited from the note-taking skills ingrained in his family heritage but his exclusion from his family’s profession freed Leonardo to pursue his own artistic and scientific explorations.
Unconventional Education
- Had Leonardo been born legitimate, he likely would have received a traditional education focused on the classics and humanities, as was typical for aspiring professionals.
- However, his illegitimacy meant he did not attend a “Latin school” and instead received only basic training in commercial math at an “abacus school”. Leonardo lacked formal education in the classics and humanities, which were typical for aspiring professionals. He was largely self-taught.
- He proudly referred to himself as a “disciple of experience,” emphasizing his reliance on observation and experimentation.
- This lack of formal education freed him from the constraints of traditional thinking, fostering a freethinking attitude and a skepticism towards received wisdom that would become hallmarks of his scientific approach.
- He believed that true knowledge could primarily be attained through direct observation and experimentation. This conviction led him to develop a scientific method that relied on empirical evidence and meticulous documentation, foreshadowing the principles later championed by Bacon and Galileo.
Embracing Difference
- Leonardo’s homosexuality, a fact he neither hid nor flaunted, further contributed to his outsider status.
- While homosexuality was not uncommon in Florence’s artistic circles, sodomy was a crime. Leonardo faced accusations of sodomy in his youth, though the charges were ultimately dismissed.
- His attraction to men and his comfort with his sexuality likely reinforced his sense of being unconventional.
Vegetarianism
- Leonardo was a vegetarian for a significant portion of his life. Meat was a common part of the Italian diet, and vegetarianism was less common. His vegetarianism stemmed from his love for animals, and his notebooks contain passages that criticize meat consumption. He advocated for a “simple” (139, loc. 2130-2131) vegetable diet and believed that a plant-based lifestyle was more ethical.
- His rationale for avoiding meat derived from a morality based on science. Unlike plants, animals could feel pain, Leonardo realized. His studies led him to believe that this was because animals could move their bodies.
- “Pain is not necessary in plants.” (140, loc. 2133-2136)
Left-Handedness
- Leonardo was left-handed, which was relatively uncommon in his time.
- He possessed certain unique practices that likely set him apart from others and reinforced his sense of being different:
- Mirror Writing:
- Leonardo wrote in mirror script, from right to left, a practice attributed to his left-handedness.
- Giorgio Vasari, a 16th-century biographer of Renaissance artists, observed that Leonardo likely adopted this style to prevent smudging the ink as he wrote.
- Distinctive Drawing Techniques:
- Leonardo’s left-handedness also impacted his drawing style. As with his writing, he drew from right to left to avoid smudging the lines, and his hatching strokes, used to create shading and texture, were unique in that they slanted upwards to the left.
- This unusual approach differed from the conventional hatching strokes, which typically slanted upwards to the right.
- Most artists draw hatching strokes that slope upward to the right, like this: ////. But Leonardo’s hatching was distinctive because his lines started on the lower right and moved upward to the left, like this: \\. (41, loc. 626-628)
- Mirror Writing:
“Tell me if anything was ever done.”
Leonardo da Vinci’s status as an outsider is likely closely linked to his tendency to procrastinate. His illegitimacy and unconventional education allowed him the freedom to pursue his diverse interests, unconstrained by the expectations of traditional career paths.
This freedom, however, also contributed to his difficulty in completing projects. Leonardo’s notebooks are full of unfinished ideas, spanning a wide range of disciplines, suggesting that his insatiable curiosity often led him to abandon projects in pursuit of new and exciting concepts.
While celebrated for masterpieces like the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, a substantial amount of Leonardo’s work remained unfinished. Leonardo da Vinci was a master of procrastination, and had a notable tendency to leave projects unfinished.
Some possible reasons why include:
The Allure of New Ideas:
- Leonardo’s notebooks reveal a mind overflowing with ideas and observations, spanning a vast array of subjects. His to-do lists, often included entries like “The measurement of Milan and its suburbs” alongside tasks like “Draw Milan”(13, loc. 197-199).
- He was always interested in new things, which meant he often stopped working on one thing to start something else.
- For example, while he was working on the monumental bronze horse sculpture for the Duke of Milan, he became very interested in anatomical studies of horses. He even started writing about it, but he ultimately never finished the statue.
The Burden of Perfectionism:
- Leonardo’s art and science projects were ambitious and very complicated. He was always trying to get every little detail right and accurately depict the different shades of light, shadow, and emotion.
- Leonardo’s contemporaries often attributed his unfinished works to his relentless pursuit of perfection. His artistic ideals were so lofty that he perceived flaws even in creations others considered miraculous.
- The pursuit of unattainable perfection often led Leonardo to abandon projects rather than compromise his artistic vision.
- One possible reason is that the task he undertook became overwhelming for a perfectionist. (88, loc. 1348-1349)
- As [Giorgio] Vasari explained about Leonardo’s unfinished works, he was stymied because his conceptions were “so subtle and so marvelous” that they were impossible to execute faultlessly. (88, loc. 1349-1350)
- “It seemed to him that the hand was not able to attain to the perfection of art in carrying out the things which he imagined.” (89, loc. 1350-1351)
- According to Lomazzo, the other early biographer, “he never finished any of the works he began because, so sublime was his idea of art, he saw faults even in the things that to others seemed miracles.” (89, loc. 1351-1352)
Conception over Execution:
- Leonardo sometimes preferred the initial stages of a project, where he could freely explore ideas and experiment with concepts, to the more laborious process of execution.
- Leonardo was most excited about coming up with new ideas and exploring different possibilities in his mind. He liked thinking of new designs, but the practicalities of bringing those designs to fruition often held less appeal.
- There was another reason, one even more fundamental, that Leonardo did not complete the painting: he preferred the conception to the execution. (90, loc. 1367-1368)
- His notebooks are filled with partially realized ideas and “drafts for treatises not yet refined” (116, loc. 1775-1776), suggesting that he was more interested in learning and exploring new things than in finishing his work.
- Leonardo also invented a machine designed to grind needles, which would have been a valuable contribution to the textile industries of Italy. It used human power to revolve a turntable attached to small grinding gears and polishing strips (fig. 54). He thought it might make him rich. (197, loc. 3018-3020)
- figured that he could reap an annual revenue of 60,000 ducats, the gold equivalent of more than $8 million in 2017. (198, loc. 3022-3023)
- But needless to say, Leonardo never finished executing his plan. Coming up with the conception was enough for him. (198, loc. 3024-3025)
A Reluctance to Let Go:
- Leonardo’s tendency to hold on to works for years, revisiting and refining them even after they were deemed “finished”, also contributed to his reputation for leaving projects incomplete.
- This dedication to refining his work, even after it was deemed “finished” by others, demonstrates that, for Leonardo, the process of creation was just as important as the final product.
- For instance, he held on to the Saint Jerome in the Wilderness for over 20 years, incorporating anatomical insights from dissections he conducted much later.
- “Significant parts of the modeling of the Saint Jerome were added twenty years after his first outlining of the figure,” said Clayton, “and that modeling incorporates the anatomical discoveries that Leonardo made during his dissections of the winter of 1510.” (93, loc. 1418-1419)
- It shows that Leonardo’s record of unreliability was not simply because he decided to give up on certain paintings. He wanted to perfect them, so he kept hold of many of them for years, making refinements. (93, loc. 1425-1427)
- The Mona Lisa is arguably the most famous painting in the world and represents the culmination of Leonardo da Vinci’s artistic and scientific explorations. And yet, Leonardo never truly finished it (or delivered it to its commissioner)
- He began working on the Mona Lisa in 1503 upon returning to Florence and carried it with him throughout his travels, adding final touches as late as 1517 while in France.
- Even some of his commissions that were completed, or almost so—Ginevra de’ Benci and the Mona Lisa, for example—were never delivered to clients. (94, loc. 1427-1428)
- Leonardo clung to his favorite works, carried them with him when he moved, and returned to them when he had new ideas. (94, loc. 1428-1429)
- He did not like to let go. That is why he would die with some of his masterpieces still near his bedside. (94, loc. 1430-1431)
- He began working on it [The Mona Lisa] in 1503, when he returned to Florence after serving Cesare Borgia. (455, loc. 6966-6967)
- In fact, he carried it [The Mona Lisa] with him, and continued to work on it, throughout his second period in Milan and then during his three years in Rome. He would even take it to France on the final leg of his life journey, adding tiny strokes and light layers through 1517. It would be in his studio there when he died. (55, loc. 6967-6969)
- Instead, he kept it [The Mona Lisa] with him in Florence, Milan, Rome, and France until he died, sixteen years after he began. (461, loc. 7068-7068)
- Over that period, he added thin layer after layer of little glaze strokes as he perfected it [The Mona Lisa], retouched it, and imbued it with new depths of understanding about humans and nature. (461, loc. 7068-7070)
Always More to Learn:
- Leonardo thought of art as a dynamic process, something that was always changing and could be improved.
- He believed that there was always more to learn, new techniques to master, and further inspirations to incorporate.
- One reason that he was reluctant to relinquish some of his works and declare them completed was that he relished a world in flux. (495, loc. 7579-7580)
- No instant, he wrote, is self-contained, just as no action in a theatrical pageant nor any drop in a flowing river is self-contained. (495, loc. 7581-7582)
- Each moment incorporates what came right before and what is coming right after. (495, loc. 7582-7582)
- Similarly, he looked upon his art and engineering and his treatises as a part of a dynamic process, always receptive to a refinement by the application of a new insight. (495, loc. 7582-7583)
- Relinquishing a work, declaring it finished, froze its evolution. (495, loc. 7585-7586)
- There was always something more to be learned, another stroke to be gleaned from nature that would make a picture closer to perfect. (495, loc. 7586-7587)
Procrastination as a Creative Strategy:
- Leonardo believed that true creativity required time for ideas to “marinate” and develop fully before executing. He thought that the beginning of a project was the most important time, a time for deep contemplation and experimentation. He believed that this was the best way to make something new and important.
- The creation of The Last Supper illustrates this aspect of Leonardo’s creative process. When Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, asked him why he was taking so long, Leonardo said that he was thinking carefully about how to arrange the painting and what emotions he wanted to show.
- When Leonardo was summoned by the duke, they ended up having a discussion of how creativity occurs. (277, loc. 4246-4246)
- Sometimes it requires going slowly, pausing, even procrastinating. That allows ideas to marinate, Leonardo explained. Intuition needs nurturing. (277, loc. 4246-4247)
- “Men of lofty genius sometimes accomplish the most when they work least,” he told the duke, “for their minds are occupied with their ideas and the perfection of their conceptions, to which they afterwards give form.” (277, loc. 4247-4249)
- By delaying the execution of a project, Leonardo gave himself time to consider different approaches, experiment with various techniques, and refine his concepts.
- Even though this way of working frustrated his patrons, it helped Leonardo come up with new and better ideas.
Conclusion
Leonardo da Vinci’s genius emerged precisely because of his position as an outsider, not in spite of it. What many viewed as his greatest weakness – leaving works unfinished – actually reflected the depth of his intellectual curiosity and relentless drive for perfection.
The power of Leonardo’s approach lies in its emphasis on process and exploration over product. His unfinished works aren’t failures of completion but rather artifacts of an artist and thinker for whom the journey of discovery mattered more than the destination.
Each unfinished painting or drawing provides insight into Leonardo’s mind, showing us how he wrestled with problems of light, anatomy, and perspective. His notebooks, filled with half-formed ideas and numerous questions, demonstrate how he saw the world – not as a place of fixed answers, but as an endless source of inquiry.
By embracing the unfinished, Leonardo invites us to value the beauty of the creative process itself, and to appreciate that genius lies not only in completion but in the courage to constantly begin anew. Creativity thrives in the spaces between certainty, in the willingness to question, explore, and sometimes leave things unresolved.
Leonardo’s unfinished works are invitations for us to embrace our own creative journeys with the same fearless curiosity that defined his life’s work.
Read the whole series
Part 1: Book Summary
Part 2: The Outsider Who Revolutionized Art and Science
Part 3: Key Elements of Leonardo’s Genius and Actionable Insights
Part 4: The Interplay of Art and Science in Leonardo’s Work
Part 5: Technology and Culture as Catalysts for Genius and “Scenius”
Part 6: Leonardo da Vinci’s Note-Taking
Part 7: Leonardo, Macchiavelli, and The Prince