THE MIND OF DA VINCI
By Kyle George
“His mind and personality seem to us as super-human.”
-Art Historian, Helen Gardner
How do you explain a man who thought beyond what most people are even capable of conceiving? Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance man that has been called the father of paleontology and architecture. He is one of the greatest painters in history as well as being one of the leading artists of the High Renaissance, the popular artistic style of the first half of the 16th century in Western Europe. It was characterized by heroic centralized compositions, technical mastery of drawing and conception, plus a mature humanistic content.
Leonardo Da Vinci was born April 15, 1452 near the village of Vinci, about 25 miles west of Florence. He was born out of wedlock to Piero da Vinci, a prominent notary, and Caterina, a local peasant woman. Da Vinci was the oldest of his twelve siblings, half of whom were born when he was in his twenties.
Florence at the time of Leonardo’s youth was the center of Christian humanist thought, though there is some debate over whether da Vinci truly believed in God. Da Vinci was a student of all things scientific and was an inventor, sometimes being credited with the invention of the helicopter, the parachute, and the tank. He was a polymath, a person with a wide range of skills, knowledge, and interests. He was a musician, mathematician, engineer, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, philosopher, and writer.
Da Vinci was educated in the studio of Florentine painter Andrea del Verrocchio, which was considered one of the finest workshops in Florence. He was 14 years old when he commenced that apprenticeship in 1466, the year Verrocchio’s master died, the great sculptor Donatello.
Da Vinci, a left handed painter, produced several master works including the most reproduced religious painting of all time, the Last Supper. The novelist Matteo Bandello observed the master at work. He wrote that some days da Vinci would paint from dawn to dusk, not stopping to eat, and then he wouldn’t paint for three or four more days.
Guinness World Records lists da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (perhaps his most well known masterpiece) as having the highest ever insurance value for a painting. It’s currently on display at the Louvre in Paris and is --- though the value of the famous painting was assessed at 100 million dollars --- widely considered to be priceless. More than 100 years ago, in August of 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen off the walls of the Louvre, and thankfully recovered two years later in December of 1913. In 1956 it was damaged when a vandal threw acid on the painting while it was being displayed in a museum in Montauban, France.
Da Vinci had great respect for life as evident by his vegetarianism, and his supposed habit of buying caged birds only to set them free. His spelling is considered erratic and strange, though --- especially when someone is taking notes --- a person often won’t care for such issues as it is the content of the idea which matters most to the intelligent mind. He also started more projects than he finished, another sign of his intelligence as no one paints good all the time, and one would be wise to be selective in what they complete and show to others. Further proof of da Vinci’s rarified mind comes in the form of his dyslexia, meaning he often wrote his notes in reverse, mirror image, a trait sometimes shared by other left-handed dyslexic adults.
Master Leonardo da Vinci died May 2, 1519, in the Chateau of Cloux, near Amboise in France where he’d been living on invitation from King Francis I for about two years. He was 65 years old.