Imbibe the great Leonardo Da Vinci
Most of us have known Leonardo Da Vinci as an artist who painted the greatest and much talked painting of all time: Mona Lisa. But he was more than that, the great Leonardo Da Vinci a polymath, who beside being an artist was also a theorist, scientist, architect, sculptor, anatomist, engineer, an event organizer, musician et cetera. Born as a bastard to a rich father Ser Piero Da Vinci, a notary and lower-class mother Catherine through an illicit affair in the middle of fifteenth century. Leonardo Da Vinci lived a life full of twists and turns. Before moving to Florence where his journey as a painter and later on as a man of renaissance started he spent his most of the childhood with his grandparents and uncle Francesco whom he had very close relation and great influence. He worked as an apprentice under another great artist Andrea del Verrocchio when he moved to Florence during his teens. After painting The Baptism of Christ along with his master, Leonardo already became a name. And his journey of greatness started thenceforth.
Walter Isaacson in his book on Leonardo Da Vinci gives an insight into his life and about his greatness. Here are my takeaways from the life of Leonardo Da Vinci which helped me a lot and I am sure will help the readers as well.
1) Have a child like curiosity.
As we grow up the curiosity to know things die with the age. But this wasn’t the case with Leonardo who till his last never stopped learning new things, to ask questions, to ponder over it and seek answers.
2) Have a to-do list
Leonardo always wrote about the things he wanted to learn about and is actually a great idea to maintain in today’s hectic world. For example he wrote "describe the tongue of woodpecker" in his to-dos.( Can you even imagine?)
3) Indulge fantasy
All great men in the world have become great because of their wild fantasies mixed with reality whether it is Elon Musk’s dream of Mars' habitation to Einstein’s theory to that of Leonardo’s paintings and machineries.
4) Do it for yourself and not for others.
Leonardo painted for himself. He painted things which he loved. For instance the painting of Mona Lisa was though painted for a patron but was never delivered as Leonardo kept it with himself adding minute details till his last days.
5) Observe every single details.
Leonardo started learning about the anatomy of humans and animals especially horses by dissecting them so that he can study about the working of muscles, emotions etc which helped him in perfecting his paintings. We can clearly observe the bones in Saint Jerome in the wilderness or smile of the Mona Lisa or the horses in The Battle of Anghiari.
6) Do not go to the second step until you have mastered first one.
Learn things deeply for your own sake then only you can excel in your respective fields.
7) Enjoy the challenge of conceptions more than the chores of completion.
In simple words enjoy the process, see the unseen, feel each moment, fantasize rather than just thinking of results.
8) Respect facts.
If we want to be more like Leonardo we need to accept new information based on facts, changing the preconceptions. Each and every time he discovered new things he renovated his paintings based on it.
9) Love for animals.
Even though he dissected animals for the study. He adopted vegetarianism as he believed nature has given enough to fulfill ones need and every animal has their own rights.
10) Not everything needs sharp line.
Just like his famous sfumato technique which didn’t have any distinct boundary. He saw things between black and white.
I hope his life might have inspired you as well to imbibe him in thyself.
