Leonardo da Vinci: The Renaissance Man

Leonardo da Vinci was a genius who invented revolutionary ideas centuries before the rest of the world would catch up with him. He embodies the definition of a Renaissance man, one who studied and mastered a variety of different subjects. He was a painter, an engineer, an architect, a writer, a scientist, and an inventor. While you may know him for his most famous works, like the Mona Lisa or The Last Supper, few people know the man behind the paintings. Today on Biographics, we're telling you all about Leonardo da Vinci. Early Life A baby boy named Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452, in a Tuscan village called Vinci. The child was born out of wedlock to a wealthy legal notary named Messa Piero Frusinio d'Antonio and a beautiful peasant girl named Caterina de Mio Lippi. His father took responsibility for the boy and raised him on the family estate with his wife. But as a bastard child, young Leonardo was not even allowed to be given his father's last name. He was simply called Leonardo da Vinci, which means Leonardo of Vinci. Leonardo lived with his biological mother until he was five years old, when his father took over the responsibility of raising him. Caterina went on to marry a man who was simply referred to as The Fighter. Leonardo's father, Messa, married a 16-year-old noble girl named Alberia, and they had legitimate children of their own. Instead of going to school, the countryside was young Leonardo's classroom. Even at a young age, he was inquisitive, and he truly fell in love with nature. He wished that men could fly like the birds and swim through the oceans like the fish. Together with his brothers, they played games of war, and he imagined being triumphant in battle like the men in the stories told by his father. However, this stage of innocence couldn't last forever. As he grew up, Leonardo learned that he would not be allowed to inherit the family estate. Further, Leonardo had nine brothers and three sisters, so even if he could inherit his father's estate, it's not like there's much to go around. So, well, Leonardo had to learn a trade and figure out how to take care of himself. In medieval Florence, guilds were sort of like today's trade unions, and they were split up into multiple categories of jobs that a man could choose from, so long as he was born into the right social class. The highest ranking guilds were called the Arti Maggiore, and his father would have been a part of the guild for powerful lawyers, judges, and notaries. But as an illegitimate child, this was like being in the lower class, and he was not even allowed to join the lesser guild categories, which middle class workers like blacksmiths and stonemasons were a part of. His only option was to join the guild which held lower class jobs like bakers and millers. However, Leonardo's father still wanted his son to have a good life. Now, he could see that the boy had a natural talent for art, so his father introduced him to a man called Andre del Verrocchio, who ran an art studio in the city of Florence. After seeing the boy's sketches, he agreed to take him on as an apprentice. Andre del Verrocchio had several artists and craftsmen working for him in his workshop. He would take on commissions from the wealthy and powerful Medici family, and divide the work amongst his students and employees. Their studio worked on improving the beauty of the city. They had to work with all mediums, whether it was carving marble statues, casting metal, or painting portraits. Even architecture, bridges, and lots of other civil engineering projects were all sketched by members of this guild. So this made it necessary for Leonardo to learn multiple disciplines. After a few years of training, Leonardo da Vinci assisted Verrocchio in painting a commissioned piece for the Catholic Church called The Baptism of Christ. This was a very large mural on the wall of a church, so there was plenty of space for two artists to stand and work on the painting at the same time. Verrocchio instructed Leonardo to paint two angels that had been included in his rough sketch. When da Vinci was done, Verrocchio was in total shock. He could not believe how gorgeous and lifelike the painting was. He knew that the students had already surpassed the master. By his mid-twenties, Leonardo da Vinci became a master artist at Verrocchio's studio, and he earned himself a reputation. Leonardo conducted a lot of experiments with art, like studying how light changed the shading on an object, or the perfect time of day to sketch someone's face. However, his talent was also a curse, because it caused a lot of jealousy among the art community. At 24 years old, da Vinci was accused of having sex with a male prostitute, and he was arrested for sodomy. At that time, the punishment for sodomy was being burned to death. But when he went to trial, no evidence was presented, and no witnesses came forward, and they simply could not prove that he'd done anything illegal. So they had to let him go. However, even though he was found not guilty, he still wrote in his journals that this scandal very seriously hurt his reputation. Few clients wanted to work with him in Florence, despite his obvious talent. Now we don't know da Vinci's actual sexual orientation. We only know that he never got married. Some believe that he chose to be celibate in order to focus on his work. At the end of the day, whoever turned him into the authorities definitely wanted him dead. As awful as this sounds, medieval times were truly cutthroat, and men of high standing always had to watch their backs to make sure they were not killed by their enemies. An assassin named Bernardo de Bandino Barancelli stabbed Gianno de' Medici in the street simply because they were both from rival banking families. One of Leonardo's earliest known sketches was his observation of Barancelli's body in the gallows, titled The Hanged Man. After this dispute between the Barancellis and the Medici families, Florence and Naples were on the brink of war. The men in da Vinci's guild were forced to stop working on art, and to use their engineering skills to defend the city. Since da Vinci was a bastard, he could not become a knight and serve in the royal court. Instead, he started to design ladders and massive weapons to help defend Florence should they ever need it. Perhaps he saw this as his way to be remembered in history books. During a three month time period, the city was on edge, believing they were on the brink of war. When Lorenzo Medici returned after making a successful peace treaty, the rest of the After peace returned to the city, the artist's guild could go back to making beautiful things, but this was no longer challenging or interesting to da Vinci. When he was 29 years old, he was asked to do his first commissioned mural at a church all by himself. The painting was called Adoration of the Magi, and he took his concept above and beyond what any other painter had done previously. It was an incredible peace, but da Vinci didn't seem to see that, because after spending a very long time working on the piece, he decided that he simply could not finish the painting. He was very restless at that time, and he didn't have the patience to actually sit and complete a lot of his projects. He had so many brilliant ideas, but he sometimes had trouble executing them. Da Vinci was sued more than once for getting paid by a patron, but then failing to finish the work as he promised. This, coupled with the accusation of sodomy, meant that his talent was simply not enough to make up for his bad reputation. He thought that now, maybe it was time to start over somewhere new. Just before we get into da Vinci's new stage of life, I want to quickly tell you about Brilliant. Now, I can't promise you that they'll turn you into the next da Vinci, but I can promise you that Brilliant will improve your understanding of what he and other great scientists have done. Brilliant are a science learning platform that allow you to learn through something called active learning, which, summed up, is basically the opposite of that feeling of reading a really complex paragraph about some principle and then having no idea what on Earth they're talking about, even if you've read it a dozen times. And it's not just the basics that Brilliant cover, although they totally cover the basics as well. They go all the way through to things like complex statistics and a whole lot else. Whether you want to, like da Vinci, look at some classical mechanics, or maybe you want to jump ahead just a few years and look at special relativity or quantum objects, Brilliant makes even the most complex concepts easy to understand. They give you something super short to read, it's just a few lines, it's very easy to get through, and then you immediately apply what you've just learned to a problem. You simply rinse and repeat that, and suddenly you're understanding a whole bunch of stuff that you didn't think you would be. I've been using Brilliant, and I think you should go try it out just to see how fascinating it is for such a complex subject to be so easily grasped. You can support Biographics by going to brilliant.org forward slash biographics, and let's get back to da Vinci. Even though he was more talented than many of the other painters in Florence, Leonardo da Vinci still went through a midlife crisis when he was 30 years old. He realized that the lifestyle of a professional artist did not suit him, and he craved the adventure of having a career in weapon design. He had an entire book filled with incredible inventions that would not be made until years later. This included things like a tank, a giant crossbow, underwater scuba gear, and even a robotic soldier. He was truly hundreds of years ahead of his time, but without a war, these weapons never actually came to life. Leonardo da Vinci planned to move to Milan, the most northern Italian state, but he also wanted to secure employment before he made that journey. So we know why he wanted to leave Florence, but why did he choose Milan? Well, that's because the city was much closer to France, so they were far more interested in gathering weapons to defend the country. Da Vinci sent a letter to the Duke of Milan claiming that he was a weapon design expert, and he included a few pages from his sketchbook. At the very end of the letter, he also included a single line mentioning that he was also a painter. This letter went to Ludovico Sforza, the temporary Duke of Milan. He was holding this position of power until his nephew came of age. The Sforza family had not been in power for very long, especially compared to the likes of the Medici. Sforza invited Leonardo da Vinci to visit, and he was overjoyed, hoping that he would finally be able to make that career change he wanted. Once he got there, he was gravely disappointed to find out that the Duke wanted him to paint a portrait of his beautiful mistress. Today, that portrait is called Lady with an Ermine. Even though he came to Milan to escape being a painter, he still blew people away with his talent. Sforza was so impressed that he commissioned a statue of a 24-foot tall horse. Da Vinci told him that it would take at least three years to complete. In reality, though, Da Vinci was stalling for time because, without the help of his old master's studio, he had no idea how he was going to pull off a 20-foot tall, metal-cast horse. The Sforzas were establishing themselves, and the Duke of Milan believed that paying for things like metal statues would somehow prove their permanence in high society. At first, Da Vinci created the horse out of clay, and it was unveiled at a party. It impressed them so much that Da Vinci was accepted into the Sforza royal court. Unfortunately, like a lot of his projects, Da Vinci was in a bit over his head, and he was running out of time. By a stroke of luck, Sforza decided to go to war, and he needed the metal resources for his army's weapons. Once again, Leonardo Da Vinci thought that this might be the time that he can shine with his weapons, but there were not enough resources to pay for their creation. The Duke of Milan gave him a new assignment in decorating a church called Santa Maria della Grazia, which is where he painted one of his most famous works, The Last Supper. At the time, the priests were actually very annoyed with him, because it took him over three years to complete the painting. For the next 17 years, Da Vinci enjoyed a life of financial security and respect in Sforza's royal court. During the time that he lived in Milan, Da Vinci had a secret project that he never dared to tell anyone. He was dissecting human cadavers and sketching their bodies, muscles, and organs. He also made wax casts of the organs. Now, this all sounds rather creepy, and Da Vinci knew this, which is why he kept this sketchbook a secret, and it only showed up in the 1600s. At that time, autopsies and any other form of disturbing the dead was frowned upon by the Catholic Church. He already knew what it was like to have a soiled reputation back in Florence, so he was far more careful this time, essentially leading a double life. Even though his sketchbook was found over a hundred years later, his studies of the human body were revolutionary and became the foundation of modern anatomy. Leonardo Da Vinci would write in notebooks about his scientific experiments, his inventions, and artistic ideas. There are over 15,000 pages of his notes that have survived. He even wrote some of those notes backwards so you could only read them when looking in a mirror. Some people believe that he did this because he was worried that people would steal his ideas. When Leonardo Da Vinci was 50 years old, the Sforza family lost their position of power and the French invaded Milan. When they saw the giant clay horse statue standing on the estate, they used it for target practice. Leonardo Da Vinci had to leave Milan with the bare necessities, including his journals, but he left all of his works of art behind. He decided to travel from place to place, once again trying to pitch his ideas for military weaponry around Italy. He showed the Duke of Venice his ideas, which included a snorkeling suit for breathing underwater that actually worked. He had ideas on how humans could fly or walk on the bottom of the ocean. Keep in mind, this was at a time when people didn't even have clocks or watches to tell time. While all of his ideas were amazing, they were far too ahead of his time and the Duke of Venice didn't find any need for these inventions. Da Vinci was forced to reluctantly move back to Florence, and he was reluctant because he feared that everyone would still remember his bad reputation. But it was actually far worse than that. By that time, the people had forgotten all about the name Leonardo Da Vinci, and there was a new genius in town, Michelangelo, and he was just 26 years old. Since the art world in Florence was so competitive, Leonardo hated Michelangelo almost immediately. Da Vinci was clearly jealous, and had to find reasons to dislike Michelangelo. He would write angrily in his journal about how he thought the young man was dirty and undignified. Despite the long beard you see in most depictions of Da Vinci, he actually spent all of his younger years making sure that he was always clean-shaven and he always wore the finest of clothes. He even had professional musicians playing music for his clients while they sat for their portraits and the whole process was like going to a luxury spa. Michelangelo, on the other hand, had the polar opposite approach to his art. He was so focused on his work that he would forget to shave for days and let his beard grow out. He let chips of stone and dust cover his home after working on a statue, and it was far more like a workshop than a comfortable place for clients to stay. The two artists deeply disliked each other, and even once got into a fight in public. Secretly, Da Vinci would go home to write about how depressed he was to be getting older Since Da Vinci could no longer secure his place in the Florence art scene, he decided to try his luck at weapon design one last time. Pope Alexander had a bastard son named Cesare Borgia. Some people say that he was a great leader, while others say that Borgia was a bloodthirsty ruler who killed anyone who got in his way. Machiavelli's famous book called The Prince was even based on Borgia as an example of what a ruler must do to stay in power. Da Vinci sent his sketches to Borgia, and finally he had someone saying yes to his weapons. He became chief general engineer for Borgia and supervised the construction of towers, weapons, and bird's eye view maps of the cities which he planned on invading, which was revolutionary for the time. Da Vinci got everything he wanted, but it was at a price he never expected. The only reason why Borgia was willing to pay for the creation of all these weapons was because he wanted to kill as many enemies as possible. Until this point, the idea of war had simply been just a concept to Leonardo Da Vinci, and stories of knights going into battle seemed like fun. For the first time in his life, Da Vinci actually witnessed what a bloodthirsty battle looked like, and it was too gruesome for him to handle. He wrote, Truly, man is more savage than beast, for our brutality exceeds theirs. We live by the death of others. The straw that broke the camel's back was when Borgia ordered the death of one of Da Vinci's close friends. He quietly left Borgia in the dead of the night and moved back to Florence, where he returned to a peaceful life painting portraits. After selling those weapons, Leonardo Da Vinci had saved a nice nest egg for his retirement, and it was during this time that he painted the Mona Lisa. No one knows for sure who she actually is. There are several theories, but none have been confirmed. Unlike all those portraits that were commissioned and given away, he carried the portrait of Mona Lisa with him for the rest of his life. For once, this was a piece of art that was done just for him, but he was constantly changing it because he never felt he got it exactly right. During his retirement, he started to build massive wings for human buildings in the hopes that one day people would fly. He said, There will be wings for man. If it is not accomplished by me, it will be accomplished someday by some other. There is a commonly told story that during a flight attempt with these wings, someone fell and broke their leg. After this failed attempt, he designed a motor that would flap the wings, but it never worked properly. However, he did eventually design the first wing that looks very much like what we use in modern day airplanes. Besides the patrons that he served, Leonardo Da Vinci was not yet famous around the world. He intended to publish books, but he never actually went through with it. As we mentioned earlier, he wrote and sketched over 15,000 pages on a variety of subjects, but he was a perfectionist, so he continued to add more and more information because he never felt that his work was complete. Among these notes are multiple sketches of an old man with a beard. People assume that this was his self-portrait, but no one knows for sure. However, this image is used to portray him in popular culture, and it's how he's remembered today. King Francis I of France had been collecting Da Vinci's pieces for years, and he wrote a letter to Da Vinci, inviting him to live in his chateau. Da Vinci agreed to move to France, and when he was 65 years old, he had a stroke which paralyzed his arm. The king's castle became his comfortable retirement place, and he was given the very best medical care money could buy. When he died in the year 1519, he left the Mona Lisa and all of his sketchbooks and journals to his loyal apprentice. Born a bastard, Leonardo Da Vinci died like a king. His life lives on forever in his work, and he will continue to serve as an inspiration to people around the world for centuries to come.