LIVE, LEARN, & LOVE Series #29. Leonardo Da Vinci (authored by Carlo Pedretti)

LIVE, LEARN, & LOVE

Do you take delight in watching films or listening to pop music? For English learners, movies, songs, and books are one of the he most wonderful sources to explore the language! You can indulge in your favorite pastime and still learn some expressions, words of wisdom, and oftentimes good lessons while you’re at it.

 

# 29. Leonardo Da Vinci (authored by Carlo Pedretti)

This book, which has been translated in various languages, seeks to describe who this remarkable genius was and explore the reasons behind his creativity across many disciplines. Although his work was grounded in rigorous science and traditional knowledge, it was his natural curiosity that truly guided him throughout his life. His questioning mindset pushed him to explore every area of learning, and his life’s achievements represent a unique blend of art, science, and technology, brought together through both theory and hands-on experience accumulated over many productive years.

 

“The life of Leonardo is extremely varied and undetermined, so that it seems he lives only for the day”, wrote Piero da Novellara to Isabella d’Este.

ð  This excerpt shows Leonardo da Vinci's erratic working style, unpredictable nature, and tendency to prioritize intellectual curiosity over finishing commissions. In other words, Leonardo’s interests constantly kept shifting. He was working as a painter, but also acting as a military engineer, studying anatomy, hydraulics, and mathematics simultaneously. He did not follow a typical or predictable, disciplined, or standard artistic career path.

He was easily distracted by new ideas, often abandoning projects or taking years to finish them because he was pursuing whatever captured his interest at that exact moment.

Isabella had commissioned a painting from Leonardo. Piero was explaining that, although Leonardo had taken her commission, he was not fully committed to the project.

In short, the phrase is a critique of Leonardo's artistic process, portraying him as a genius who lacked focus and lived in a state of chaotic, day-to-day intellectual spontaneity.

 

“Leonardo sketches a man hanged for the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478, shocking his friend Lorenzo di Credi, and the one where Leonardo, in the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, dissects a cadaver to search for the cause of such gentle dying – both episodes are metaphors for the thirst for knowledge devoid of any moral scruples even in the face of death.”

ð  Overall, Leonardo was not just as an artist or a scientist, but as a determined investigator who viewed the human body as something to be studied and understood, regardless of the difficult circumstances surrounding its death.

In the sketch “The Hanged Man (1478)”, Leonardo described Bernardo di Bandino Baroncelli, who was involved in the Pazzi conspiracy against the Medici. His focus on details like the “color of the flesh and the form” reflects a deep interest in anatomy and expression, even in the context of a harsh public execution—something that unsettled his friend Lorenzo di Credi. Leonardo also conducted a dissection to uncover the physical cause of death, approaching anatomy with scientific curiosity rather than through a traditional moral or religious lens.

 

“Famed for many decades as the highest manifestation of human genius and invoked as eloquent proof of the freedom from historical limitations of human thought, capable of bounding high above its own time, Leonardo remains today for a vast public a sensational “precursor”, a man who surmised centuries in advance the direction that would be taken by science and technology.”

ð  Leonardo is widely regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile individuals in human history. He is often cited as compelling evidence that human thought can transcend the limits of its time, showing that the mind is not strictly confined by the knowledge or technology of a particular era. His ability to think far beyond the context of the 15th century allowed him to explore ideas that would not be fully understood until much later.

Seen as a remarkable pioneer, Leonardo is considered a precursor who helped lay the intellectual foundation for modern science and innovation.

Overall, this excerpt presents Leonardo as a link between the Renaissance and the modern scientific world, portraying him as someone who grasped the principles of nature, science, and technology long before society was prepared to realize them.

 

** Jean’s Small Thoughts:

Beyond peradventure, Leonardo da Vinci was one of history’s most extraordinary figures, impossible to confine to a single field. His immense curiosity and relentless drive to learn across both art and science were the foundation of his achievements and success. Yet, in his own time—and perhaps even today—he might have been seen as an unconventional genius, or even criticized as an unfocused artist or scientist, frequently pulled in new directions by sudden bursts of interest.

Regardless of how his contemporaries perceived or labeled him, it remains clear that Leonardo demonstrated the remarkable extent of human potential to observe, investigate, comprehend, and represent the human experience.