Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN-13 : 978-1501139154
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3| Part 4 | Part 5| Part 6 |Part 7
Introduction: The Power of “Scenius”
- Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519), was a Renaissance polymath with multidisciplinary contributions to art, science, engineering, and anatomy.
- Leonardo’s life coincided with a confluence of significant cultural and technological innovations that nurtured his genius and shaped the course of his life.
- “Scenius,” a term coined by British musician and producer Brian Eno, refers to the collective intellectual and creative energy of a specific time and place; it argues that individual brilliance is nurtured by a supportive and stimulating environment.
- Leonardo was a singular and extraordinary genius, but his success can also be partially attributed to the collaborative spirit, intellectual exchange, and patronage that characterized the Italian Renaissance, and the specific cultural and technological forces at play.
- Leonardo’s relentless curiosity, combined with the technological and societal changes of the time, allowed him to absorb and synthesize knowledge across various disciplines.
- Individual genius flourishes when nurtured within a vibrant and supportive “scenius.”
- “The fifteenth century of Leonardo and Columbus and Gutenberg was a time of invention, exploration, and the spread of knowledge by new technologies.” (18, loc. 271-272)
- In 1452 Johannes Gutenberg had just opened his publishing house, and soon others were using his moveable-type press to print books that would empower unschooled but brilliant people like Leonardo. (27, loc. 402-403)
- Italy was beginning a rare forty-year period during which it was not wracked by wars among its city-states. Literacy, numeracy, and income were rising dramatically as power shifted from titled landowners to urban merchants and bankers, who benefited from advances in law, accounting, credit, and insurance. ( 27, loc. 403-405)
- Born within a year of Leonardo were Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci, who would lead an era of exploration. And Florence, with its booming merchant class of status-seeking patrons, had become the cradle of Renaissance art and humanism. ( 27, loc. 406-408)
The Fertile Ground of the Renaissance
- The Italian Renaissance, spanning roughly from the 14th to 16th centuries, provided the ideal scenius for a personality like Leonardo to emerge.
- This period witnessed a resurgence of interest in classical learning, art, and humanism, leading to a flourishing of creativity and intellectual exploration across multiple disciplines.
- Cities like Florence and Milan, with their powerful patrons and thriving workshops, became fertile ground for artists, engineers, and intellectuals to collaborate and exchange ideas.
- The Renaissance emphasis on multidisciplinarity further allowed Leonardo, with his wide-ranging curiosity, to explore his diverse interests without being confined to a single field.
- This convergence of factors – a revival of classical learning, a culture celebrating interdisciplinary pursuits, and the support of powerful patrons – created the vibrant “scenius” that nurtured Leonardo’s genius.
The Rise of Florence as a Center of Art and Commerce
- Leonardo was fortunate to be born and raised in Florence. In the 15th century, Florence was a very rich and important city in Italy, famous for its textile industry.
- Its economy, once dominated by unskilled wool-spinners, had flourished by becoming one that, like our own time, interwove art, technology, and commerce. (34, loc. 507-508)
- It was also a major banking center.
- It was also a center of banking; the florin, noted for its gold purity, was the dominant standard currency in all of Europe, and the adoption of double-entry bookkeeping that recorded debits and credits permitted commerce to flourish. (34, loc. 509-511)
- All of this money helped Florence become a great place for art and learning, and Florence became a leading center of the Italian Renaissance. Many talented people came to Florence from all over Italy and other countries.
- Florence was a great place for people of all types to share ideas because it was a city of trade and finance. Florence also had the highest literacy rate in Europe, which also contributed to its intellectual milieu.
- So, too, was his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical. Florence flourished in the fifteenth century because it was comfortable with such people. (18, loc. 273-274)
- Fully a third of Florence’s population was literate, the highest rate in Europe. By embracing trade, it became a center of finance and a cauldron of ideas. (34, loc. 512-513)
- Many of the city’s artists were also architects, and its fabric industry had been built by combining technology, design, chemistry, and commerce. (35, loc. 522-523)
Patronage and Artistic Flourishing: The Medici Family’s Patronage of the Arts
- The rise of a wealthy merchant class in Italian city-states like Florence provided vital patronage for artists and scholars.
- Powerful families like the Medici, with their vast wealth and appreciation for art and learning, became important patrons, commissioning works from artists, scholars, and intellectuals, and fostering a culture that valued artistic and scientific innovation.
- The Medici family, in particular, played a crucial role in shaping Florence’s cultural landscape.
- The republic was not, however, democratic or egalitarian. In fact, it was barely a republic. Exercising power from behind its façade was the Medici family, the phenomenally wealthy bankers who dominated Florentine politics and culture during the fifteenth century without holding office or hereditary title. (36, loc. 540-542)
- After Cosimo de’ Medici took over the family bank in the 1430s, it became the largest in Europe. By managing the fortunes of the continent’s wealthy families, the Medici made themselves the wealthiest of them all. (36, loc. 543-544)
- They were innovators in bookkeeping, including the use of debit-and-credit accounting that became one of the great spurs to progress during the Renaissance. By means of payoffs and plotting, Cosimo became the de facto ruler of Florence, and his patronage made it the cradle of Renaissance art and humanism. ( 36, loc. 544-546)
- Cosimo de’ Medici, the head of the family, was a major patron of the arts.
- A collector of ancient manuscripts who had been schooled in Greek and Roman literature, Cosimo supported the rebirth of interest in antiquity that was at the core of Renaissance humanism. He founded and funded Florence’s first public library and the influential but informal Platonic Academy, where scholars and public intellectuals discussed the classics. In art, he was a patron of Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, and Donatello. ( 36, loc. 546-549)
- Cosimo’s grandson, Lorenzo de’ Medici (known as Lorenzo the Magnificent), was also a big supporter of art.
- During his twenty-three-year reign, he would sponsor innovative artists, including Botticelli and Michelangelo, as well as patronize the workshops of Andrea del Verrocchio, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Antonio del Pollaiuolo, which were producing paintings and sculptures to adorn the booming city. ( 37, loc. 554-556)
- Lorenzo de’ Medici’s patronage of the arts, autocratic rule, and ability to maintain a peaceful balance of power with rival city-states helped to make Florence a cradle of art and commerce during Leonardo’s early career there. ( 37, loc. 556-558)
- Even though Leonardo didn’t work directly for the Medici family, their support helped make Florence a great place for artists.
- Florence’s festive culture was spiced by the ability to inspire those with creative minds to combine ideas from disparate disciplines. (37, loc. 560-561)
- The culture rewarded, above all, those who mastered and mixed different disciplines. ( 37, loc. 564-564)
Learning From Masters and Peers
- Throughout his life, Leonardo da Vinci’s pursuit of knowledge and artistic excellence was enriched by a network of mentors, collaborators, and even rivals.
- These interactions provided him with technical skills, intellectual stimulation, and a supportive community.
A. The Verrocchio Workshop: A Foundation in Art and Engineering
Section I
- As a teenager in Florence, Leonardo’s apprenticeship in Andrea del Verrocchio’s renowned workshop provided a foundational experience in both art and engineering.
- Around the time Leonardo was fourteen, his father was able to secure for him an apprenticeship with one of his clients, Andrea del Verrocchio, a versatile artist and engineer who ran one of the best workshops in Florence. (42, loc. 635-636)
- Verrocchio conducted a rigorous teaching program that involved studying surface anatomy, mechanics, drawing techniques, and the effects of light and shade on material such as draperies. (42, loc. 641-642)
- The topics of discussion in his shop included math, anatomy, dissection, antiquities, music, and philosophy. (43, loc. 647-648)
Section II
- Verrocchio, more of a master sculptor than a painter, imparted to Leonardo a deep appreciation for the sculptural elements of painting, such as modeling and the depiction of twisting and turning bodies in motion.
- That ability to convey the subtleties of motion in a piece of still art was among Verrocchio’s underappreciated talents, one that Leonardo would adopt and then far surpass in his paintings. (46, loc. 698-699)
- Verrocchio imbued his statues with twists, turns, and flows. (46, loc. 699-700)
- from Verrocchio he learned something more profound: the beauty of geometry. ( 47, loc. 707-707)
- Leonardo was also influenced by Verrocchio’s primary commercial competitor in Florence, Antonio del Pollaiuolo. ( 48, loc. 726-726
- Even more than Verrocchio, Pollaiuolo was experimenting with the expression of moving and twisting bodies, and he performed surface dissections of humans to study anatomy. ( 48, loc. 726-727)
- [Pollaiuolo] was, wrote Vasari, “the first master to skin many human bodies in order to investigate the muscles and understand the nude in a more modern way.” (48, loc. 727-728)
- Leonardo’s keen observation of nature and mastery of light effects, combined with Verrocchio’s understanding of motion and narrative, resulted in a harmonious collaboration that showcased the strengths of both master and student.
- This influence is evident in the dynamism and anatomical precision of Leonardo’s early contributions to Verrocchio’s paintings, such as the scampering dog and shiny fish in Tobias and the Angel.
- So it is not surprising that to paint the fish and dog he would turn to his pupil Leonardo, whose eye for nature was proving to be astonishing. (60, loc. 906-907
- In this deeply pleasing and sprightly painting, we can see the power of a master-pupil collaboration. (60, loc. 919-920)
- Leonardo was already an extreme observer of nature, and he was perfecting the ability to convey the effects of light on objects. Added to that, he had imbibed from Verrocchio, the master sculptor, the excitement of conveying motion and narrative. (60, loc. 920-921)
- The pinnacle of their collaboration, The Baptism of Christ, marked a turning point in their relationship.
- The culmination of Leonardo’s collaborations with Verrocchio came in the mid-1470s with the completion of The Baptism of Christ, which shows John the Baptist pouring water over Jesus while two angels kneeling beside the River Jordan watch. Leonardo painted the radiant, turning angel on the far left of the scene, and Verrocchio was so awed when he beheld it that he “resolved never again to touch a brush”—or at least that’s what Vasari tells us. Even allowing for Vasari’s penchant to mythologize and trot out clichéd themes, there was probably some truth to the tale. ( 61, loc. 922-927)
- Afterward Verrocchio never completed any new painting on his own. (61, loc. 927-927)
- In these acutely observed vortexes and scientifically accurate ripples, Leonardo delights in what will become his favorite pattern: nature’s spirals. The curls flowing down his angel’s neck look like cascades of water, as if the river had flowed over his head and transformed into hair. ( 64, loc. 973-975)
- With the Baptism of Christ, Verrocchio went from being Leonardo’s teacher to being his collaborator. (64, loc. 978-979)
- He had helped Leonardo learn the sculptural elements of painting, especially modeling, and also the way a body twists in motion. (64, loc. 979-980)
- But Leonardo, with thin layers of oil both translucent and transcendent, and his ability to observe and imagine, was now taking art to an entirely different level. ( 64, loc. 980-981)
- Leonardo was redefining how a painter transforms and transmits what he observes. (64, loc. 982-982
B. The Influence of Brunelleschi and Alberti
- Filippo Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti, two important figures of the early Renaissance, profoundly influenced Leonardo da Vinci’s artistic and scientific development, even though they likely never met.
- Brunelleschi and Alberti’s innovations in architecture, perspective, and the integration of mathematics and art provided Leonardo with specific techniques and principles.
- They inspired his broader approach to understanding the world, one that sought to bridge the gap between art and science, observation and theory.
Filippo Brunelleschi
- Filippo Brunelleschi was an architect and engineer who designed the innovative dome for the Florence Cathedral.
- His groundbreaking engineering techniques, including the invention of sophisticated hoists, inspired Leonardo’s fascination with mechanics and his lifelong interest in combining artistry with engineering.
- To build his cathedral dome—a self-supporting structure of close to four million bricks that is still the largest masonry dome in the world—Brunelleschi had to develop sophisticated mathematical modeling techniques and invent an array of hoists and other engineering tools. (38, loc. 572-574)
- Brunelleschi’s rediscovery of linear perspective, a technique that had been lost during the Middle Ages, revolutionized Renaissance art
- He demonstrated how parallel lines converge towards a vanishing point in the distance, creating the illusion of depth on a two-dimensional surface.
- Brunelleschi also rediscovered and greatly advanced the classical concepts of visual perspective, which had been missing in the art of the Middle Ages. ( 38, loc. 577-578)
- Brunelleschi showed how parallel lines seemed to converge in the distance toward a vanishing point. His formulation of linear perspective transformed art and also influenced the science of optics, the craft of architecture, and the uses of Euclidean geometry. ( 38, loc. 582-584)
- Leonardo embraced Brunelleschi’s principles of perspective, incorporating them into his own artistic practice and scientific investigations.
- His preparatory drawings for The Adoration of the Magi demonstrate his meticulous use of perspective lines, showcasing how he built his art on a foundation of scientific principles.
Leon Battista Alberti
- Leon Battista Alberti was, like Leonardo, another Renaissance polymath; talented in multiple fields including art, architecture, engineering, and writing. He was also an illegitimate child, just like Leonardo.
- An artist, architect, engineer, and writer, Alberti was like Leonardo in many ways: both were illegitimate sons of prosperous fathers, athletic and good-looking, never-married, and fascinated by everything from math to art. (39, loc. 586-588)
- One difference is that Alberti’s illegitimacy did not prevent him from being given a classical education. His father helped him get a dispensation from the Church laws barring illegitimate children from taking holy orders or holding ecclesiastical offices, and he studied law at Bologna, was ordained as a priest, and became a writer for the pope. (39, loc. 588-590)
- …, he would grill people from all walks of life, from cobblers to university scholars, to learn their secrets. In other words, he was much like Leonardo, except in one respect: Leonardo was not strongly motivated by the goal of furthering human knowledge by openly disseminating and publishing his findings; (39, loc. 593-595)
- Alberti, on the other hand, was dedicated to sharing his work, gathering a community of intellectual colleagues who could build on each other’s discoveries, and promoting open discussion and publication as a way to advance the accumulation of learning. (39, loc. 595-597)
- Alberti further refined Brunelleschi’s work on perspective and extended its application to other fields. In his influential book, On Painting, Alberti expanded on Brunelleschi’s analysis, using geometry to calculate how perspective lines should be represented on a two-dimensional surface.
- This mathematical approach not only improved painting techniques but also had practical applications in areas like mapmaking and stage design.
- Leonardo, despite likely never meeting Alberti, was deeply influenced by his ideas.
- He adopted Alberti’s method of constructing a human body from the inside out, starting with the skeleton, then the skin, and finally the clothing, as evidenced in his preparatory drawings for The Adoration of the Magi.
- As a young painter in Florence, Leonardo studied human anatomy primarily to improve his art. His forerunner as an artist-engineer, Leon Battista Alberti, had written that anatomical study was essential for an artist because properly depicting people and animals requires beginning with an understanding of their insides. (213, loc. 3265-3267)
- “Isolate each bone of the animal, on this add its muscles, then clothe all of it with its flesh,” he wrote in On Painting, which became a bible for Leonardo. “Before dressing a man we first draw him nude, then we enfold him in draperies. So in painting the nude, we place first his bones and muscles which we then cover with flesh so that it is not difficult to understand where each muscle is beneath.” (214, loc. 3267-3270)
- And in his notebooks he [Leonardo] preached the same sermon: “It is necessary for a painter to be a good anatomist, so that he may be able to design the naked parts of the human frame and know the anatomy of the sinews, nerves, bones, and muscles.” ( 214, loc. 3271-3273)
- Following another part of Alberti’s creed, Leonardo wanted to know how psychological emotions led to physical motions. As a result, he would also become interested in the way the nervous system works and how optical impressions are processed. (214, loc. 3273-3275)
C. Milan: From Artistic Collaboration to Anatomical Inquiry
- When Leonardo moved to Milan in 1482, the city’s intellectual climate and the presence of the esteemed University of Pavia presented new opportunities for collaboration and mentorship.
- When he moved to Milan, he discovered that the study of anatomy there was pursued primarily by medical scholars rather than by artists. The city’s culture was more intellectual than artistic, and the University of Pavia was a center for medical research. (214, loc. 3281-3283)
- Prominent anatomical scholars were soon tutoring him, lending him books, and then teaching him dissection. Under their influence, he began pursuing anatomy as a scientific as well as an artistic endeavor. But he did not regard these as separate. In anatomy, as in so many of his studies, he saw the art and science as interwoven. Art required a deep understanding of anatomy, which in turn was aided by a profound appreciation for the beauty of nature. (215, loc. 3283-3286)
- This shift in focus inspired Leonardo to approach anatomy not merely as a tool for improving his art but also as a scientific discipline worthy of rigorous investigation.
- As with his study of the flight of birds, Leonardo went from seeking knowledge that could be of practical use and began seeking knowledge for its own sake, out of pure curiosity and joy. (215, loc. 3286-3288)
- Leonardo’s partnership with Marcantonio della Torre, an anatomy professor at the University of Pavia, marked a period of significant progress in his anatomical work
- His most important hands-on inquiries came during the winter of 1510–11, when he collaborated with Marcantonio della Torre, a twenty-nine-year-old anatomy professor at the University of Pavia. (391, loc. 5992-5993)
- The young professor provided the human cadavers—probably twenty of them were dissected that winter—and lectured while his students did the actual cutting and Leonardo made notes and drawings. (391, loc. 5994-5995)
- This partnership resulted in an impressive body of work, and the combination of della Torre’s anatomical knowledge and Leonardo’s artistic skill, observational powers, and innovative spirit could have revolutionized the study of anatomy, :
- During this period of intense anatomical study, Leonardo made 240 drawings and wrote at least thirteen thousand words of text, illustrating and describing every bone, muscle group, and major organ in the human body for what would have been, if it had been published, his most historic scientific triumph.(392, loc. 5996-5998)
- Unfortunately, the collaboration was cut short by della Torre’s death from the plague in 1511.
- One of the things that could have most benefited Leonardo in his career was a partner who would help him follow through and publish his brilliant work. Together he and Marcantonio could have produced a groundbreaking illustrated treatise on anatomy that would have transformed a field still dominated by scholars who mainly regurgitated the notions of the second-century Greek physician Galen. (392, loc. 6002-6004)
D. Competition with Rivals: A Catalyst for Innovation
Section I: Michelangelo
- Michelangelo is another important figure of the Italian Renaissance. While Leonardo was in Milan, Michelangelo rose to prominence in Florence. Apprenticed to the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio, he gained the patronage of the Medici family.
- When Leonardo left Florence for Milan in 1482, Michelangelo was only seven years old. (359, loc. 5501-5502)
- During the seventeen years that Leonardo was away in Milan, Michelangelo became Florence’s hot new artist. (359, loc. 5503-5504)
- He was apprenticed to the thriving Florence workshop of the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio, won the patronage of the Medici, and traveled to Rome in 1496, where he carved his Pietà, showing Mary grieving over the body of Jesus. (359, loc. 5504-5505)
Section II: Personality and Appearance
- Leonardo, known for his handsome features, elegant attire, and affable nature, enjoyed the company of friends and students.
- In contrast, Michelangelo was described as “intense, disheveled, and irascible,” with a solitary nature and a preference for “melancholy”.
- As Vasari reported, he [Michelangelo] displayed instead “a very great disdain” toward Leonardo. (360, loc. 5508-5508)
- By 1500 the two artists were back in Florence. Michelangelo, then twenty-five, was a celebrated but petulant sculptor, and Leonardo, forty-eight, was a genial and generous painter who had a following of friends and young students. (360, loc. 5506-5507)
- Unlike Leonardo, Michelangelo was often contentious. (360, loc. 5515-5516)
- He had powerful feelings of love and hate toward those around him but few close companions or protégés. “My delight is in melancholy,” Michelangelo once confessed. (361, loc. 5522-5523)
- Whereas Leonardo was disinterested in personal religious practice, Michelangelo was a pious Christian who found himself convulsed by the agony and the ecstasy of faith. (361, loc. 5524-5525)
- They were both gay, but Michelangelo was tormented and apparently imposed celibacy on himself, whereas Leonardo was quite comfortable and open about having male companions. (361, loc. 5525-5527)
- Their physical appearances were equally distinct:
- Michelangelo had a disfigured nose for the rest of his life. Combined with his slightly hunched back and unwashed appearance, that made him a contrast to the handsome, muscular, and stylish Leonardo. (360, loc. 5517-5519)
- “Leonardo was handsome, urbane, eloquent and dandyishly well dressed,” wrote Michelangelo’s biographer Martin Gayford. “In contrast, Michelangelo was neurotically secretive.” He was also “intense, disheveled, and irascible,” according to another biographer, Miles Unger. (360, loc. 5520-5522)
- Michelangelo was ascetic in dress and demeanor; he slept in his dusty studio, rarely bathed or removed his dog-skin shoes, and dined on bread crusts. (361, loc. 5527-5528)
Section III: Artistic Styles
- Their artistic styles also diverged significantly. Leonardo’s work was characterized by a “universal” approach to subject matter, encompassing a wide range of themes and figures.
- He excelled in depicting subtle emotions, capturing the nuances of human expression through techniques like sfumato.
- Michelangelo, on the other hand, focused primarily on the male nude, particularly the muscular, idealized form.
- His preferred technique, disegno, emphasized sharp outlines and contours to define forms, contrasting with Leonardo’s preference for soft, blended edges.
- Therein lay another difference between the two artists. Michelangelo tended to specialize in muscular male nudes; (366, loc. 5601-5602)
- Leonardo, on the contrary, prided himself on the “universal” nature of his subjects. (366, loc. 5603-5603)
- Leonardo’s broader critique of Michelangelo was his argument that painting is a higher form of art than sculpture. (366, loc. 5608-5609)
- he painted like a sculptor. Michelangelo was good at delineating forms with the use of sharp lines, but he showed little skill with the subtleties of sfumato, shadings, refracted lights, soft visuals, or changing color perspectives. He freely admitted that he preferred the chisel to the brush. ( 367, loc. 5616-5618)
- “I am not in the right place, and I am not a painter,” he confessed in a poem when he embarked on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel a few years later. (367, loc. 5618-5619)
- Their divergent approaches represent two schools in Florentine art: that of Leonardo, Andrea del Sarto, Raphael, Fra Bartolomeo, and others who emphasized the use of sfumato and chiaroscuro, and the more traditional approach taken by Michelangelo, Agnolo Bronzino, Alessandro Allori, and others who favored a disegno based on outlined contours. (368, loc. 5637-5639)
Section IV: An Unfinished Rivalry
- Leonardo’s rivalry with Michelangelo culminated in a public commission for Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio: two monumental battle scenes depicting Florentine victories, meant to be displayed as companion pieces.
- The commission that Leonardo received in October 1503 to paint a sprawling battle scene for Florence’s Council Hall in the Palazzo della Signoria could have become one of the most important of his life. (349, loc. 5338-5339)
- Had he completed the mural along the lines of the preparatory drawings he made, the result would have been a narrative masterpiece as captivating as The Last Supper, but one in which the motions of the bodies and the emotions of the minds would not have been constrained by the confined setting of a Passover Seder, as The Last Supper was. (349, loc. 5339-5342)
- The commission for the Battle of Anghiari mural in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio pitted Leonardo, then 51, against the younger and rapidly rising Michelangelo, 28, who was assigned a companion battle scene on the opposite wall.
- Heightening the significance of the commission was the fact that Leonardo would end up pitted against his personal and professional young rival, Michelangelo, who was chosen in early 1504 to paint the other large mural in the hall. (349, loc. 5348-5350)
- This “concorrenza,” or competition, as it was referred to at the time, became a public spectacle, with the contrasting styles and artistic philosophies of the two masters on full display.
- To the Signoria and its leader Soderini, the decision was a conscious effort to play off the rivalry between the era’s two greatest artists. (364, loc. 5575-5576)
- Accounts from the time all use the same word for it: concorrenza, or competition. (364, loc. 5576-5577)
- Leonardo’s Battle of Anghiari focused on the chaos and emotional intensity of battle, capturing the frenzy of a cavalry charge. Known through copies of his preparatory drawings, the work showcased his mastery of composition and his ability to convey a sense of movement and intense emotion
- Michelangelo’s Battle of Cascina, depicting Florentine soldiers scrambling to arms after being surprised while bathing, provided an opportunity to showcase his anatomical expertise and fascination with the male nude.
- The subject assigned to Michelangelo was another of Florence’s rare battlefield victories, this one over Pisa in the Battle of Cascina in 1364. (365, loc. 5583-5584)
- Like Leonardo, he failed to complete his painting, and once again we know it only through copies of the full-scale preparatory cartoon he drew, including one made by his pupil Bastiano da Sangallo (365, loc. 5584-5585)
- This is the moment when Florence’s soldiers were bathing in the Arno River and received an alarm that the enemy was attacking, causing them to scramble up the banks and grab their clothes. (365, loc. 5589-5591)
- it was a scene suited for Michelangelo, who had never been to war or seen a battle but was infatuated with the male body. (365, loc. 5591-5592)
- His focus on depicting idealized, heroic figures in dynamic poses contrasted with Leonardo’s more realistic and emotionally charged portrayal of battle.
- Neither artist completed their murals. Michelangelo was summoned to Rome to work on the tomb of Pope Julius II (and eventually stayed to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel), while Leonardo, facing technical challenges with his oil-based paint and perhaps unnerved by the competition, abandoned the project.
- Leonardo’s meticulous nature and scientific approach to art may have contributed to his inability to complete the mural. His obsession with perspective, lighting, and shadow, coupled with the technical difficulties of working with oil paint on a large scale, likely overwhelmed even his impressive talent
- Leonardo, who as usual was both procrastinating and having difficulty getting his oil-based paint mixtures to adhere to the wall. (369, loc. 5645-5646)
- Other painters would not have noticed, or would have chosen to ignore, the way figures in a large painting could seem disproportionate when viewed from different parts of the room. But Leonardo was obsessed by the optics, mathematics, and art of perspective. (370, loc. 5662-5664)
- The challenges of how to get all of the perspectives from each angle to look believable were combined with the difficulties of showing direct and reflected lighting and shadows in an open-air scene that was to be viewed inside a room. (370, loc. 5670-5671)
- He was a perfectionist faced with challenges other artists would have disregarded but that he could not. So he put down his brushes.That behavior meant he would never again receive a public commission. ( 370, loc. 5673-5674)
- This rivalry, while ultimately unresolved as neither artist completed their mural, not only showcased the diversity of artistic talent in Florence but also fueled innovation.
- It pushed both artists to refine their techniques and explore new ways of representing the human form and capturing the essence of motion and emotion in their work.
- Their rivalry, fueled by their contrasting personalities and artistic approaches, reflected a period of intense creativity and innovation in Florence.
- The unfinished battle scenes turned out to be two of the most influential lost paintings in history…helped to shape the High Renaissance. (371, loc. 5676-5677)
- They were kept on display in Florence until 1512, and young artists flocked to see them. ( 371, loc. 5678-5679)
- Raphael traveled to Florence just to see the two cartoons that had caused such a sensation, Vasari reported, and he drew versions of them. (371, loc. 5682-5683)
- Leonardo and Michelangelo had become luminaries, paving the way for other artists—who until then had rarely even signed their work—to do the same. (371, loc. 5687-5688)
- Instead of being treated as somewhat interchangeable members of the craftsman’s class, the best artists were now treated as singular stars. (372, loc. 5689-5690)
The Revolution of the Printing Press and Leonardo’s Self-Education
- A key element of the Renaissance “scenius” that fostered Leonardo’s intellectual growth was the invention of the printing press.
- The advent of printing and the increased accessibility of books played a crucial role in shaping Leonardo’s scientific pursuits and broadening his understanding of the world.
- Before the printing press, books were painstakingly handwritten and very expensive. This meant only a few people could read them.
- But in 1452 (the same year Leonardo was born), Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in Germany and began selling Bibles from it.
- Gutenberg’s printing press used moveable type, which allowed for the mass production of books. It revolutionized the way knowledge was produced and disseminated and made books more widely available and affordable, so more people could read them.
- In that regard, Leonardo was born at a fortunate moment. In 1452 Johannes Gutenberg began selling Bibles from his new printing press, just when the development of rag processing was making paper more readily available. (175, loc. 2674-2675)
- By the time Leonardo da Vinci became an apprentice in Florence, Gutenberg’s technology had spread from Germany. There was widespread adoption of printing technology throughout Europe, particularly in Italy, where printing shops flourished in major cities.
- In 1469, Italy’s first major commercial publishing house opened, and by 1471 there were printing shops in several Italian cities, including Milan and Florence.
- Venice became the center of Europe’s publishing industry, and by the time Leonardo visited in 1500, there were close to a hundred printing houses there, and two million volumes had come off their presses. (175, loc. 2680-2682)
- This proliferation of printed material made books significantly more affordable and accessible, allowing individuals like Leonardo, who lacked a formal education in Latin or Greek, to gain access to a wealth of knowledge across various disciplines. It exposed him to the ideas of other scholars and thinkers.
- His notebooks are filled with lists of books he acquired and passages he copied. (175, loc. 2684-2684)
- He also recorded at various times the books that he hoped to borrow or find. (176, loc. 2692-2692)
- By 1492 Leonardo had close to forty volumes. A testament to his universal interests, they included books on military machinery, agriculture, music, surgery, health, Aristotelian science, Arabian physics, palmistry, and the lives of famous philosophers, as well as the poetry of Ovid and Petrarch, the fables of Aesop, some collections of bawdy doggerels and burlesques, and a fourteenth-century operetta from which he drew part of his bestiary. (176, loc. 2687-2689)
- By 1504 he would be able to list seventy more books, including forty works of science, close to fifty of poetry and literature, ten on art and architecture, eight on religion, and three on math. (176, loc. 2689-2691)
- This eclectic mix of texts highlights Leonardo’s wide-ranging interests and his drive to synthesize knowledge from various disciplines.
- Leonardo thus was able to become the first major European thinker to acquire a serious knowledge of science without being formally schooled in Latin or Greek. (175, loc. 2682-2683)
The Rediscovery of Classical Knowledge and the Rise of Humanism
- Leonardo was born into an era marked by the rise of humanism, a cultural movement that celebrated human reason, creativity, and the pursuit of knowledge.
- During the Italian Renaissance, the rediscovery of classical knowledge fueled the rise of humanism, a cultural movement that profoundly shaped Leonardo’s intellectual and artistic development.
- Humanism, a key characteristic of the Renaissance, emphasized the study of classical literature, history, and philosophy as a means of understanding human nature and potential.
- The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 led to a wave of scholars fleeing to Italy, bringing classical Greek and Roman manuscripts with them.
- The Ottoman Turks were about to capture Constantinople, unleashing on Italy a migration of fleeing scholars with bundles of manuscripts containing the ancient wisdom of Euclid, Ptolemy, Plato, and Aristotle. ( 27, loc. 405-406)
- These texts, containing the works of philosophers, mathematicians, and scientists like Euclid, Ptolemy, Plato, and Aristotle, had been largely lost to Western Europe during the Middle Ages.
- Their rediscovery ignited a renewed interest in classical thought and learning; people started to believe more in human reason, observation, and experience, leading to the cultural movement known as humanism.
- Humanists celebrated human reason, creativity, and the pursuit of knowledge, shifting the focus away from the old ways of thinking in the Middle Ages, which relied on religious dogma, rules, and authority.
- This emphasis on human potential resonated with Leonardo’s own curiosity and his belief in the power of observation and experimentation.
- Humanists also believed that all knowledge was connected, and fostered a climate of intellectual and artistic exploration, encouraging Leonardo’s interdisciplinary approach to knowledge.
- This rediscovery of ancient knowledge in mathematics, architecture, engineering, and philosophy provided a rich foundation for Renaissance humanism and profoundly influenced Leonardo’s own work.
- His studies of Vitruvius’s architectural treatise, his fascination with human anatomy, and his application of mathematical principles to perspective and optics all reflect this deep engagement with classical thought.
Example: Vitruvian Man
- The rediscovery of Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture, a treatise on Roman architecture and engineering, had a profound impact on Renaissance art and architecture.
- Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, born around 80 BC, served in the Roman army under Caesar and specialized in the design and construction of artillery machines. (155, loc. 2366-2368)
- Vitruvius later became an architect and worked on a temple, no longer in existence, in the town of Fano in Italy. ( 155, loc. 2368-2369)
- His most important work was literary, the only surviving book on architecture from classical antiquity: De Architectura, known today as The Ten Books on Architecture. (155, loc. 2369-2370)
- For many dark centuries, Vitruvius’s work had been forgotten, but in the early 1400s it was one of the many pieces of classical writing, including Lucretius’s epic poem On the Nature of Things and Cicero’s orations, that were rediscovered and collected by the pioneering Italian humanist Poggio Bracciolini. At a monastery in Switzerland, Poggio found an eighth-century copy of Vitruvius’s opus, and he sent it back to Florence. There it became part of the firmament of rediscovered classical works that birthed the Renaissance. (155, loc. 2371-2375)
- Brunelleschi used it as a reference when he traveled to Rome as a young man to measure and study the ruins of classical buildings, and Alberti quoted it extensively in his treatise on architecture. (155, loc. 2375-2376)
- A Latin edition was published in the late 1480s by one of Italy’s new print shops, and Leonardo wrote in a notebook, “Enquire at the stationers about Vitruvius.” (155, loc. 2376-2377)
- Vitruvius’s emphasis on the analogy between the proportions of the human body and the design of a temple resonated with the humanist idea of man as a microcosm reflecting the macrocosm of the universe.
- What made Vitruvius’s work appealing to Leonardo and Francesco was that it gave concrete expression to an analogy that went back to Plato and the ancients, one that had become a defining metaphor of Renaissance humanism: the relationship between the microcosm of man and the macrocosm of the earth. (156, loc. 2378-2380)
- This analogy was a foundation for the treatise that Francesco was composing. “All the arts and all the world’s rules are derived from a well-composed and proportioned human body,” he wrote in the foreword to his fifth chapter. “Man, called a little world, contains in himself all the general perfections of the whole world.” (156, loc. 2380-2383)
- Leonardo likewise embraced the analogy in both his art and his science. He famously wrote around this time, “The ancients called man a lesser world, and certainly the use of this name is well bestowed, because his body is an analog for the world.” (156, loc. 2383-2385)
- Leonardo, deeply influenced by this analogy, produced his iconic Vitruvian Man drawing, which embodies the Renaissance belief in the harmonious relationship between man and the cosmos.
- More broadly, Vitruvius’s belief that the proportions of man are analogous to those of a well-conceived temple—and to the macrocosm of the world—became central to Leonardo’s worldview. (157, loc. 2395-2396)
- After detailing human proportions, Vitruvius went on to describe, in a memorable visualization, a way to put a man in a circle and square in order to determine the ideal proportion of a church: (157, loc. 2396-2398)
- Before he [Leonardo] began, he had determined exactly how the circle would rest on the base of the square but extend out higher and wider. (160, loc. 2452-2453)
- Using a compass and a set square, he drew the circle and the square, then allowed the man’s feet to rest comfortably on them. (160, loc. 2453-2454)
- As a result, per Vitruvius’s description, the man’s navel is in the precise center of the circle, and his genitals are at the center of the square. (160, loc. 2454-2455)
- instead of accepting what Vitruvius had written, Leonardo relied on his own experience and experiments, as per his creed. (162, loc. 2474-2475)
- Fewer than half of the twenty-two measurements that Leonardo cited are the ones Vitruvius handed down. (162, loc. 2475-2475)
- The rest reflect the studies on anatomy and human proportion that Leonardo had begun recording in his notebooks. (162, loc. 2475-2476)
- Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man embodies a moment when art and science combined to allow mortal minds to probe timeless questions about who we are and how we fit into the grand order of the universe. (163, loc. 2495-2497)
- It also symbolizes an ideal of humanism that celebrates the dignity, value, and rational agency of humans as individuals. (163, loc. 2497-2498)
- The rediscovery of classical knowledge and the rise of humanism provided Leonardo with a wealth of knowledge, inspired his scientific inquiries, and shaped his artistic vision, enabling him to bridge the gap between art and science, observation and theory.
The Age of Exploration: The Discovery of America
- Leonardo lived during a time of momentous discoveries, with the world expanding rapidly due to maritime explorations. And he was aware of the discoveries that were reshaping the world.
- When Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492, it made Florence desire to regain control of Pisa, a strategically important port city that provided access to the sea.
- Florence had controlled the town of Pisa, just over fifty miles down the Arno River toward the coast of the Mediterranean, for much of the fifteenth century. ( 342, loc. 5241-5242)
- This was critical for Florence, which had no other outlet to the sea. But in 1494 Pisa managed to wriggle away and become a free republic. Florence’s middling army was incapable of breaching Pisa’s walls, and it could not successfully blockade the town because the Arno gave it access to supplies from the sea. (342, loc. 5242-5244)
- Just before Pisa broke away, a major world event made Florence even more eager to control a sea outlet. In March 1493 Christopher Columbus returned safely from his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, and the report of his discoveries quickly spread throughout Europe. (343, loc. 5245-5247)
- This was soon followed by a flurry of other accounts of amazing explorations. Amerigo Vespucci, whose cousin Agostino worked with Machiavelli in the Florentine chancery, helped supply Columbus’s third voyage in 1498, and the following year he made his own voyage across the Atlantic, landing in what is now Brazil. (343, loc. 5247-5249)
- Vespucci’s reports, sent back to his Florentine patrons, likely circulated within the intellectual circles that Leonardo frequented, further attesting to Leonardo’s awareness of the unfolding discoveries.
- Unlike Columbus, who thought he was finding a route to India, Vespucci correctly reported to his Florentine patrons that he had “arrived at a new land which for many reasons . . . we observed to be a continent.” His correct surmise led to its being named America, after him. The excitement over what portended to be a new age of exploration made Florence’s desire to regain Pisa more urgent. (343, loc. 5249-5251)
- The discovery of a new continent also made European countries want to explore more and trade more. It intensified the competition among European powers for access to maritime routes and resources.
- This new interest in sea trade and exploration also must have influenced Leonardo’s work on hydraulic engineering. He designed ships, canals, and rivers, which shows that he knew how important sea technology was and how it could be useful.
- This ambition led to Leonardo’s involvement in the project to divert the Arno River, an ambitious engineering project aimed at cutting off Pisa’s access to supplies and forcing its surrender.
- In July 1503, a few months after he left Borgia’s service, Leonardo was sent to join Florence’s army at the fortress of Verruca, a square fortification atop a rocky outcropping (verruca means “wart”) overlooking the Arno seven miles east of Pisa. (343, loc. 5252-5254)
- An entry for an account book in Florence that month lists a set of expenses and then adds, “This money has been spent to provide six horse coaches and to pay the board expenses for the expedition with Leonardo in the territory of Pisa to divert the Arno from its course and take it away from Pisa.” (343, loc. 5257-5259)
- an audacious way to reconquer the city without storming the wall or wielding any weapons. (344, loc. 5260-5261)
- If the river could be channeled somewhere else, Pisa would be cut off from the sea and lose its source of supply. (344, loc. 5261-5262)
- The primary advocates of the idea included the two clever friends who had been holed up together that past winter in Imola, Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolò Machiavelli. ( 344, loc. 5262-5263)
- Leonardo’s created detailed plans for the project, including innovative designs for earth-moving machines and meticulous calculations of man-hours required.
- His plan was to dig a huge ditch, thirty-two feet deep, upriver from Pisa and use dams to divert the water from the river into the ditch. (344, loc. 5264-5265)
- This would require moving a million tons of earth, and Leonardo calculated the man-hours necessary by doing a detailed time-and-motion study, one of the first in history. (344, loc. 5267-5269)
- He figured out everything from the weight of one shovel-load of dirt (twenty-five pounds) to how many shovel-loads would fill a wheelbarrow (twenty). His answer: it would take approximately 1.3 million man-hours, or 540 men working 100 days, to dig the Arno diversion ditch. (344, loc. 5269-5270)
- designed one of his ingenious machines, which features two crane-like arms that would move lines with twenty-four buckets. (344, loc. 5272-5274)
- When a bucket deposited its dirt on top of the bank of the ditch, a worker would get in it and ride down to keep the weights counterbalanced. Leonardo also designed a treadmill system to harness human power to move the cranes. (344, loc. 5274-5275)
- Leonardo da Vinci’s project to divert the Arno River was ultimately abandoned. Despite his meticulous studies and innovative plans, the project faced several challenges that led to its failure, including the underestimation of the complexity and scale of the task, lack of resources, and political and logistical problems.
- Despite its failure, the Arno River diversion project remains an important part of Leonardo da Vinci’s legacy. The project demonstrates his innovative thinking and his willingness to tackle complex engineering challenges. It also provides insights into the challenges of large-scale engineering projects in the Renaissance era.
Conclusion
- Leonardo da Vinci’s genius was extraordinary, but it was also shaped by the unique circumstances of his time.
- He was born just as Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press was revolutionizing the dissemination of knowledge. This technology enabled the mass production of books, making classical and contemporary works on science, art, and literature accessible to a wider audience, including a young, self-taught Leonardo.
- The convergence of cultural and technological advancements like the printing press, the rise of Florence as a center of art and commerce, the rediscovery of classical knowledge, the rise of humanism, the patronage of the arts, and the challenges and opportunities presented by the age of exploration all contributed to creating a fertile intellectual and cultural environment, a scenius, that nurtured Leonardo’s talents and allowed his multifaceted brilliance to flourish.
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