The Renaissance Man
Leonardo da Vinci was born in Anciano, Tuscany, near the
town of Vinci, which would later become his namesake.
While he was most famous for his art, Leonardo da Vinci’s
interests spanned across many fields. Leonardo da Vinci was also an architect,
sculptor, engineer, and studied many other subjects as well. His creativity was
fueled by his pursuit of knowledge, and desire to understand the world around
him. His pursuit of knowledge was relentless. Believing that understanding
nature and science was paramount to creating art, Leonardo da Vinci synthesized
his findings into his art. Leonardo da Vinci’s creativity thrived on this
synthesis of different fields of knowledge, and his ability to take concepts
and idea from one field and apply them to another is what made him one of the
world’s greatest thinkers.
Leonardo da Vinci believed in the power of observation,
thinking that anything that could be observed could be understood. He described
his way of thinking as a way of seeing, and that learning how to observe is the
key to learning anything. Leonardo da Vinci studied anything that could be
perceived, and used this information to fuel his creative pursuits.
One example of this synthesis of different interests is the
Vitruvian Man. The Vitruvian Man is a drawing of the same man in two positions,
fit inside of a square and a circle. Leonardo Da Vinci completed this drawing
using specific proportions: the head being one tenth of the body, the
outstretched arms being the same width as the height of the man, each aspect of
the body in balance. These exact mathematical proportions were seen in
architecture throughout the Renaissance, as architects strived to mirror the
architecture of the Greeks and Romans. By Renaissance standards, mathematics
was the key to beauty, and Leonardo da Vinci sought to apply this principle of
mathematic perfection to the human body as well.
The Vitruvian Man also incorporated religious ideas, as
Leonardo da Vinci saw mankind as God’s most perfect creation. Striving to prove
this religious ideal, Leonardo da Vinci portrayed the Vitruvian Man according
to perfect proportion and mathematics. The Vitruvian Man combined principles
from architecture, religion, and Leonardo da Vinci’s knowledge of the human
body.
Leonardo da Vinci’s creativity was fueled by his pursuit of
knowledge, and his ability to take ideas from different fields and incorporate
them into his work.
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