WTI Magazine #60    2015 May, 15
Author : Giuseppe Verde      Translation by:

An absolute genius for the whole human history, a representation of the greatness of the human mind, one of the greatest representatives of the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci is the symbol of versatility, knowledge and curiosity, always looking for extraordinary challenges. Leonardo is one of those characters that come to mind at the very mention of Italy, known by the whole world for its art of painting, for his wit and for being the precursor of projects that would change the world.

Leonardo was born in Vinci, in Tuscany, on April 14, 1452. As a boy he is interested in painting and is sent by his family to learn the painting techniques in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence.

His production is great in every field of knowledge. Regarding painting, Leonardo is author, among other works, of "L'Annunciazione" (The Annunciation), of the "Dama con l'Ermellino" (Lady with an Ermine), of the "Vergine delle rocce" (Virgin of the Rocks), of the "Adorazione dei Magi" (The Adoration of the Magi) and of the "Ultima Cenas" (The Last Supper). Priceless works, famous throughout the world, preserved in the most important museums, each subject of millions of visits. Works that have made famous the Leonardo's "sfumato" style, the technique created by the Italian genius which also helped develop the aerial perspective of the landscape.

In science and engineering, too, his genius was astonishing. His Codex Hammer, now Code Leicester, a collection of design drawings, is one of the most valuable books in the world, bought by Bill Gates in 1994 for the sum of 30.8 million dollars. Also very famous is his Vitruvian Man, the representation of the perfect proportions of the human body, with the demonstration of the impossibility to contain it in circle or square shapes.

Essential is his contribution to all scientific disciplines. He studied fossils, giving to this field very important conclusions; he explains the gravitational force, comparing the planets to magnets attracting each other; he intuits in botany, three centuries before the official theories, that the leaves of the trees are distributed according to mathematics laws. In the field of inventions and designs, he imagines a flying machine and systems to soak in water: he will use his insights in anatomy, reasoning on the functioning of blood circulation, heart, muscles and bones.

Leonardo will also provide important insights for the development of music, designing instruments whose systems will be used centuries later in the designs of musical projects.

Considered the greatest manifestation of the Renaissance, Leonardo, not linked to any city, State or Prince, is the first example of the cosmopolitanism of Italian intellectuals, unique in Europe: an expression of a gap between culture and people destined to be prolonged until today.

But the name of Leonardo da Vinci is naturally tied to what probably is the most famous work of art in the world, portrait par excellence, the most famous and admired artistic manifestation of all: "La Gioconda". The woman of the portrait of the Mona Lisa, stored at the Louvre Museum in Paris, is Lisa Gherardini, an Italian noble contemporary of Leonardo. As Charles de Tolnay wrote "Leonardo created with the Mona Lisa a new formula, more monumental and yet more animated, more concrete, and yet more poetic than that of his predecessors. Before him, the portraits were completely missing any mystery; the artists were showing just external forms without soul or, when they were characterizing the soul, it was trying to reach the audience through gestures, symbolic objects or writings. The Gioconda uniquely exudes an enigma: the soul is present, but inaccessible".

The myth of Leonardo da Vinci remains timeless. Even today his name and his character stand for the collective as a symbol of knowledge even before one of the many disciplines in which the Italian genius has left us his ideas and his masterpieces, absolute model of unparalleled human potential.