Abstract
This chapter is devoted to the genius of geniuses, Leonardo da Vinci. A genius is usually defined as an individual who shows remarkable intellectual capabilities and creative thinking. Certain public figures through time have been widely acknowledged as geniuses, and Leonardo is unquestionably the most famous and multifaceted of them all. What sets Leonardo apart from other geniuses who mastered one sphere is that he mastered many, excelling in art, engineering, and science. In this chapter, Leonardo's personality is highlighted, and the seven principles of Leonardo's thinking identified by Gelb are briefly examined in an effort to contextualize his thought to his own times, as well as to ours, according to the interpretations of the current literature. What emerges from Leonardo's thinking is his holistic approach to art and science and his critical rationality in practical contexts.
TopIntroduction
Why devote a chapter to Leonardo?
The main reason is that he is the icon of genius. Leonardo is often described as the most universal genius (De Silvestri, 2009; McMahon, 2013). Indeed, he was undoubtedly an exceptional painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, physicist, astronomer, anatomist, humanist, biologist, mapmaker, geologist, and philosopher, all at the same time. Leonardo was exceptional, both in the arts and in science. His Vitruvian man can be considered the world’s most famous drawing (Lester, 2012), whilst the Mona Lisa is probably one of the most famous paintings of all time (Sassoon, 2001). Leonardo, however, is also celebrated as an exceptional inventor and innovator (Laurenza, 2005; 2007) as well as a precursor of technical science (Ferretti, Vezzani, & Balini, 2020; Iacobone, 2020; Oliveira, 2019; Tarelko, 2006). As such, analyzing Leonardo’s brilliance can be useful in highlighting the relationship between brilliance and innovation.
What was the secret of Leonardo's great brilliance and limitless innovative capacity?
The literature on Leonardo is extraordinarily rich (Clark & Kemp, 2015; Kemp, 2007; Isaacson, 2017; Magnan, 2020; Nuland, 2005; O'Connor, 2003; Reed, 2005), but, among the myriad of books written about him, How to think like Leonardo da Vinci (2004, first edition 1998), by Michael Gelb, may prove most useful in deciphering the secret of Leonardo’s astounding innovative capacity.
Although Gelb’s book was published more than two decades ago, it contains many original cues helpful to understand the way Leonard thought. In fact, the author identified seven cardinal principles that lay at the base of Leonardo's thought, and which can be assumed to be fundamental for human creative thinking. Several authors have discussed and commented on these principles especially, in the last few years, on the internet.
In this chapter, Leonardo's personality is highlighted, and the seven principles of Leonardo's thinking identified by Gelb are briefly examined in an effort to contextualize his thought to our times, according to the interpretations of the current literature. What emerges most strikingly from Leonardo’s thinking is his holistic approach to art and science, and his critical rationality in practical contexts. But what about his extraordinary creativity?
In regards to the possibility for people to be creative, Gelb claims that:
Although it is hard to overstate Leonardo da Vinci’s brilliance, recent scientific research reveals that you probably underestimate your own capabilities. You are gifted with virtually unlimited potential for learning and creativity (Gelb, 2004a, p. 3).
Nevertheless, the virtually unlimited human potential for learning and creativity doesn’t explain the brilliance of Leonardo da Vinci. What, then, was the secret of Leonardo’s genius? Is it really possible to think like Leonardo and, even, to emulate him?
What emerges from Leonardo’s writings is that he used his extraordinary capacity for observation to innovate in different fields. According to Walter Isaacson, Leonardo was somehow out-of-this-world:
[…] Leonardo’s brilliance spanned multiple disciplines, which gave him a profound feel for nature’s patterns and cross-currents. His curiosity impelled him to become among the handful of people in history who tried to know all there was to know about everything that could be known (Isaacson, 2017, p. 518).
Over the centuries, many people have been astonished by Leonardo’s integration of art with science, aesthetics with engineering:
Key Terms in this Chapter
Philosophy of Stoa (Stoicism): A school of philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens that thrived in ancient Greece and Rome in the early 3rd century, BCE. The overriding aim was to maximize positive emotions, thus reducing negative emotions and helping individuals to develop and improve their character virtues.
Collaborative Business: A business model in which companies cooperate or jointly employ expertise to achieve economies of scale or other advantages. Internal and external connections are leveraged in order to generate ideas, find solutions, and achieve common goals.
Simonist: A person who buys or sells spiritual offices or sacred items. Simony is usually defined as the deliberate intention of buying or selling, for a temporal price, such things as are spiritual, and extensively encompasses any exchange of spiritual for temporal things. It is named after Simon Magus, who offered payment to two of Jesus’s disciples in exchange for them empowering him to impart the power of the Holy Spirit.
Vulture: This bird appeared in the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt and was the symbol for the letter “A”. Sacred and protected by the Pharaohs, all vultures were believed to be females, born without the intervention of males but, instead, fecundated by the wind. For this reason, the early fathers of the Church believed the vulture was a natural prototype of the Virgin birth. If a vulture could be fecundated by the wind, then Mary could conceive through the Holy Spirit. In the Notebooks, there is the following note: “This writing distinctly about the kite seems to be my destiny, because among the first recollections of my infancy, it seemed to me that, as I was in my cradle, a kite came to me and opened my mouth with its tail, and struck me several times with its tail inside my lips. [Footnote: This note probably refers to the text No. 1221]” (da Vinci, 1999 AU54: The in-text citation "da Vinci, 1999" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. , MSS 1362, p. 509). Following the erroneous translation of the Italian word nibbio (kite) to vulture , Freud believed that this note should be understood to refer to Leonard’s adult fantasies, pertaining to a desire, as is common in latent homosexuals, transposed to the adult sexual sphere, of an experience from infancy. The vulture’s phallic tail in the child’s mouth, then, is seen as a substitute for the mother’s breast.
Soft Skills: Character traits and abilities that characterize interpersonal relationships with others. In the workplace, soft skills are considered to be a complement to competence and knowledge.
Senso Comune (Common Sense): According to Aristotle, in the medieval age it was believed that Senso Comune combined input from the different senses (such as touch and vision), imagination (which included the power of retaining and recalling sensory images), and memory ( Kemp & Fletcher, 1993 ).
MSS or mss: Abbreviation for manuscripts.
Systems Thinking: A holistic approach that focuses on how a system’s constituent parts are interrelated and how systems work over time and within the context of larger systems. The systems thinking approach contrasts with traditional analysis, which studies systems by breaking them down into their separate elements. Systems thinking is applied in different fields such as medicine, the environment, politics, economics, and educator training.