The Original Renaissance Man Dateline: 04/28/98

As an artist, as an inventor, and as a seeker of knowledge, Leonardo da Vinci was a giant among giants. His curiosity drove him to heights of discovery and creation undreamed of by most and actually approached by a rare few. This one man, who as a child lacked formal education, who as an apprentice surpassed his master in a matter of months, explored more avenues of learning and mastered more disciplines of study than anyone ever before -- or since.

What impresses me most about Leonardo is not his awesome artistic talent nor his keen scientific sense, but rather his overwhelming curiosity and his constant quest to learn how things work and why. It is one small thing I share with him: a need to learn more, and more. I believe this thirst for knowledge explains more than anything else the one great fault attributed to da Vinci: his tendency to leave his work unfinished.

Both the Puritan work ethic in modern American society and the medieval attitudes still prevailing during the Renaissance frown on the incomplete endeavor. But da Vinci was no Puritan. His mind was so consumed by the search for knowledge that once he had discovered what he wanted to know he immediately moved on to something even more intriguing. In this manner he discovered concepts not generally considered in scientific circles until the nineteenth and even the twentieth century.

This is not to say da Vinci never completed anything. On the contrary, his surviving works of art speak loudly of his true artistic genius. Although he did not stand alone among his contemporaries as a superior artist (Michelangelo, Titian, Raphael, and many others of that splendid time vie in their own extraordinary ways for the title of the "greatest" artist), it seems to me it was his art that often, if not always, drove his studies.

In order to paint a portrait, he needed to know how the human body worked, and so he studied anatomy. In order to paint a landscape, he needed to know how the plants and trees grew, and so he studied botany. He made studies of how water flowed, how light reflected off water and objects, how birds flew and how animals moved, all so that he could paint these subjects with realism. It was the accurate rendition of his subjects, an almost photographic quality, that he saw as the ultimate goal of the artist. And he undeniably achieved this goal again and again.

Study of water moving over objects

All these facets of da Vinci's personality make him irresistible to me as the first man I'd travel back in time to meet. To find out what I'd do on my trip into the past, please go on to page three.

 

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