Leonardo da Vinci is regarded as one of the best and most famous artists of all time. He was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. He was able to become so skilled in these areas because of the advantages he had at a young age.
Da Vinci was born to a notary and a peasant girl in 1452. Ser Piero, his father, noticed that he had a talent for drawing at a young age. Because he was illegitimate, Leonardo would not be able to become a notary or attend a university. So, as a teenager, he was apprenticed to the artist Andrea di Cione, better known as Verrocchio. Verrocchio's workshop is where he learned skills such as drawing, painting, metal crafting, leather working, making paint brushes, and mixing colors, as well as other things. It is even said that while helping Verrocchio work on a painting, he painted an angel that was so much better than the rest of the painting that Verrocchio put down his paintbrush and never painted again.
Da Vinci eventually began keeping sketchbooks to record what he learned about anatomy, botany, mechanics, and geology. Most scholars learned about these subjects through what philosophers had already written. However, since he had no formal education and wasn't able to read Latin, he had to discover and study them himself. These years of practicing (coming close to if not surpassing 10,000 hours) led to his mastery of the arts and the ability to begin the first drafts of many useful inventions, including the parachute and the machine gun.
Leonardo da Vinci's circumstances may seem to have been a disadvantage at first. Being the illegitimate son of two relatively poor people definitely seems like it. However, because he was not able to receive an education, he had more time to pursue and practice drawing and other crafts. His second opportunity that allowed him to practice and improve was his apprenticeship to Verrocchio. At a young age, he was able to work and collaborate with many great artists of the period. The next chance he was given was to make and record his own observations, instead of following those of other scholars. All of these opportunities, and his talent and practice, prove that Leonardo da Vinci was a true outlier of his time.
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YOOO, very well-written post. I loved your analysis of his disadvantages working out in his favor. Why did you decide to pick da Vinci, personally? In other words, ~what does da Vinci mean to you~?
ReplyDeleteHi Delilah. As Trinity mentioned, strong analysis. However, I did need to see you incorporate Dr. Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Intelligence in some way.
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