101 Things You Didn't Know About Da Vinci

by Shana Priwer

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  In the beginning, there was religion

  Many of Leonardo's paintings concern religious subjects, but what did Leonardo actually think of religion? Was he a true believer, or was he just another sheep in the flock?

  Most scholars think that Leonardo was a practicing Christian. He spent much of his life working under the pope's influence, so his frequent meetings with the clergy probably influenced him. The facts here, though, are few and far between. Little is known about Leonardo's religious upbringing. His grandfather arranged for his baptism, and the church of Santa Croce is said to contain the font where Leonardo was baptized. That fact alone supports the possibility that he was indeed raised in the Christian tradition. There is nothing to suggest that Leonardo's father was particularly religious. Some of Leonardo's early training may have come from local priests, but that is also not known for certain.

  Given that Leonardo's grandfather appears to have been a religious man, it is likely that his father was at least nominally Catholic, and his mother was either Catholic or Jewish. What we do know is that Leonardo wasn't averse to painting biblical subjects. Baptism of Christ, Annunciation, and Madonna and Child with a Pomegranate are just a few examples of the religious themes Leonardo was commissioned to paint. Given the time and place, though, he probably didn't have any choice. Religion, power, and culture overlapped significantly during the Renaissance, and support of the clergy was an important part of any patron's lifestyle.

  At least one aspect of Leonardo's religious beliefs is certain: He believed in a God. His writings refer to God as the creator of the universe, and the heartfelt spirit of his religious paintings reveals his devotion. Although Renaissance humanism promoted the spirit, determination, and abilities of man, it also tied man's development to ongoing worship and religion; Leonardo embraced all these aspects of the Renaissance.

  While not an out-and-out heretic, Leonardo did act in ways that you could call “free-thinking.” The fact that he may have included images of himself in several of his paintings (including Adoration and The Last Supper) could have annoyed the religious orders, since scenes representing holiness did not usually include mere mortals.

  His vegetarianism also made him stand out from the crowd. In Leonardo's day it was thought that God gave man free reign over the animals, and choosing to abstain from their consumption might have been seen as offensive to God. Vegetables in general were looked upon with suspicion, particularly root vegetables, which grew under the ground (in the devil's habitat). His eating habits notwithstanding, Leonardo did respect some traditional religious boundaries. He does not appear to have delved into magic, astrology, or other “black arts” of the day.

  Leonardo's will also made provisions for a Mass to be said in his honor. Candles were to be lit in a number of different churches. In addition, upon his deathbed Leonardo repented for his sins and asked to be instructed in the last rites of Catholicism. He seems to have felt that he had much to repent for, but ultimately he professed his commitment to God.

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  It's all in the name!

  Leonardo da Vinci is, for all practical purposes, a household name. In some form or another, his works have found their way into almost everybody's education. While Leonardo had a large number of lesser-known works, such as his inventions and sketches, his most famous works are extremely well known. In fact, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa are two of the best-known paintings in history! Just check out the crowds of people in the Louvre, surrounding a small painting encased in a huge bulletproof, climate-controlled glass enclosure!

  While Leonardo is most famous for his paintings and other designs, he has taken on a secondary fame through modern-day adaptations of his name. Perhaps the most current reengineering of the Da Vinci name is in Dan Brown's 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code. The focus of this mystery novel is on solving a murder; clues are revealed through Leonardo's works, which, Brown asserts, are full of hidden meanings and cryptic messages. In addition, Brown explores an ongoing rumor that Leonardo may have belonged to a secret society that was devoted to hiding the “truth” about Christianity. While this book is entirely fictional, it certainly has spurred interest in the Renaissance master!

  Another recent usage of Leonardo's reputation can be seen in the motion picture Mona Lisa Smile. This feature film from 2003 is about a professor in the 1950s who used some unconventional teaching methods in order to encourage her students to think on their own.

  Why did this movie choose to use the Mona Lisa as an analogy? One of the most powerful aspects of Leonardo's painting is the woman's smile; it is mysterious, inviting, and subtle all at the same time. Similarly, the main characters in the movie, students at Wellesley College, seem perfectly behaved by all outward appearances, but it turns out, not all of them are who they appear to be on the outside.

  Leonardo's name also has made it onto Broadway! Well, off-Broadway. In 2003, Mary Zimmerman of the Berkeley Repertory Theater put on a production called The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, in which she used writings from Leonardo's notebooks to piece together the fragments of Leonardo's known biography into a production that captures his dramatic strengths and greatest triumphs.

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  In sickness and in health

  Today, if you're sick, you take some Tylenol or go to the doctor, expecting to get better and back to work in a day or two. In the Renaissance, though, sickness was more of a life and death matter. Illnesses that we can quickly get rid of today by popping a few antibiotics were a serious affair, and people often died from relatively minor bugs or injuries.

  Fortunately for us, Leonardo appears to have led a generally healthy life. He didn't succumb early to illness, as did so many people in the fifteenth century. His vegetarianism may have contributed to this good health, since he does not seem to have had any trouble with his heart or other major organs. Of course, most people didn't live long enough to worry about things like heart attacks.

  Leonardo was also rumored to have been very strong. He had well-defined musculature and was known for his physical appeal. Supposedly, one of his favorite “party tricks” was to bend a horseshoe using only one hand. He was proud of his strength and it probably came in handy; working with heavy wooden panels could not have been easy, and any young painter would have had to make and carry his own supplies. In addition, traveling with Cesare Borgia's army required large amounts of physical labor, and he had to be in good shape just to keep up with the warriors.

  Life expectancy in the Renaissance was around forty years. By living to sixty-seven, Leonardo far exceeded the average for his time. Who knew that creating art was good for your health? Actually, his profession probably did have something to do with it; he wasn't out plowing the fields, fighting in battles, or otherwise doing things that might have shortened his life. However, at least one major illness did strike him. In 1513, Leonardo was working for Giuliano de Medici in Rome. Between 1513 and 1516, Leonardo was quite sick and did not produce much new work.

  In addition to battling medical problems, his work does not appear to have been going well during this period. Leonardo worked on creating new types of paint and developed a few ideas for puzzles, but did not produce many pieces of art. His notebooks reveal this frustration, as he comments that he very much wanted to keep producing art despite his failing health. A letter to Giuliano de Medici from 1513 indicates that both Leonardo and his patron were suffering from illness at this time, and that while Leonardo was pleased that de Medici's health was improving, he wished he could have hastened his own recovery.

  In 1516 Leonardo moved to France where he worked under his final patron, King François. He is believed to have had a stroke around 1516; some historians think that it caused a partial paralysis of Leonardo's right hand. Though he was not required to do any commissione
d work during his final years, Leonardo still had full use of his left hand and spent considerable time sketching and working on his notebooks. Even a potentially devastating illness could not completely slow down Leonardo, nor could it cease his artistic activities.

  Leonardo's health became progressively worse in his last few weeks. Some reports suggest that King François sat by Leonardo during his death, holding his hand and offering final words; other reports, however, indicate that the king wasn't at his royal palace on the day of Leonardo's death. During his final days, Leonardo amended his will, taking care of his final religious and civic responsibilities.

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  Leonardo da Vinci: The Renaissance man

  You can't have a Renaissance man without the Renaissance! Obviously the term was unknown before the Renaissance, and it slowly started to be used in the following centuries. Today it's a pretty well-known expression, and Leonardo da Vinci's name inevitably comes up when you start talking about Renaissance men. So, you might ask, what exactly are they? Was there an application to fill out? Did it require special licensing?

  Although there were no such requirements, the title was not liberally applied. Before the Renaissance, the Medieval period (which lasted from about 1200 to 1450) had its own distinct culture. At that time, the arts were much more generalized than they are today. There were no sharp divisions between fine art, architecture, and other crafts. The apprentice-based educational system meant that young artists learned a wide range of skills, rather than being pigeonholed early on. A strong architect was also expected to be talented in visual arts, tapestries, woodworking, sculpture, and all the other crafts required to create projects.

  In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as the Renaissance took hold, the division of arts became more pronounced. At the same time, though, general knowledge was still pretty limited compared to modern standards. Because of these limitations, people could be experts in many different fields at once. And this didn't just apply to artists! Even the general population was involved; as more was known and the general intellectual level of society increased, gentlemen, nobility, and courtiers of the day were expected to keep up with this rapidly growing cultural era. Expectations were high, and most members of the upper classes of society could sing or play a musical instrument and speak different languages, in addition to becoming skilled at their chosen professions.

  Leonardo was considered one of the earliest Renaissance men because he not only studied a diversity of subjects, he became good at them, too. He wasn't just a dabbler in painting and architecture; he was a skilled designer who produced work that remains unrivaled even today. He was considered an expert in not just art, but also mathematics, invention, engineering, and construction. He was also clearly a talented writer; his own notebooks are one of our best sources of information about his life and career, as well as his ideas.

  His inventions may seem primitive in light of modern technology and science, but for the Renaissance they were utterly astounding. What is most unusual is that his designs were advanced enough to have been innovative even 500 years later.

  Is it possible to be a Renaissance man today? One thing's for sure: it's a lot harder in modern times. In addition to there simply being more people in the world, the world is also a much larger place due to technological advances as well as free trade and exchange. We're more aware of other cultures, and we have a much larger skill base. Today, people are also generally more knowledgeable, and, as a result, there's a lot more to know to become an expert in any particular field. To be a Renaissance architect, for example, you would have been apprenticed for a while before transitioning into doing your own projects. Today, architects must be licensed; while the process still requires a four-year internship, it also requires four years of graduate school beyond college! All these requirements make it difficult to be good at just one field, let alone several. Do you know anyone who is truly an expert at more than one thing? Sure, such people exist, but they're few and far between.

  Leonardo was certainly one of the great painters of his day, but did he really have the same amount or level of competition that artists today have? There's no easy answer there—nor do we need one. Leonardo's work speaks for itself. Even today, his breadth and depth of knowledge would set him apart and given that, imagine what an astonishing figure he must have been 500 years ago! Suffice it to say that Leonardo was, in all respects, an original, and most likely would stand up well against any modern-day genius!

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  The real deal on The Da Vinci Code

  Leonardo da Vinci has been a fascinating character for centuries, but he has achieved a new degree of popularity recently, with the publication of Dan Brown's wildly successful novel The Da Vinci Code. This novel takes the reader through a historical murder mystery, with clues placed throughout various artifacts including the Holy Grail and paintings such as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.

  Of course, Brown's novel is just that—fiction. But many of the historical locations and works of art are real. This relationship to actual artworks and other artifacts has caused many people to question whether the whole story might also be real. Could there actually have been a conspiracy throughout the ages, and a secret society (of which Leonardo da Vinci himself was a member) charged with protecting secrets from Christianity's earliest days?

  Leonardo would have been a prime candidate to leave historical clues to such a conspiracy, if it actually existed—he had a penchant for puzzles, a love of secrecy, and a superior intellect. Also, remember that the works of art, as well as the secret societies mentioned in the novel, do actually exist. But there's a world of difference between their mere existence and the likelihood that they were combined into a conspiracy.

  True enough, the societies mentioned in the book, including the Priory of Sion, the Knights Templar, and Opus Dei, are real societies that exist in the real world. But their actual historical roles are quite different than the way they appear in the book. There is no evidence of any sort that these societies were involved in a plot to conceal the Holy Grail. And while scholars have analyzed da Vinci's Mona Lisa and other artists' works for centuries, looking for hidden codes or other secrets, they haven't found any.

  Leonardo da Vinci certainly was interested in codes and mechanical devices, so it's possible he might have invented a message delivery device such as the cryptex mentioned in the book. But there is no historical evidence that he did so!

  The secrets of Christianity The Da Vinci Code alludes to are controversial, to say the least. The novel suggests that the individual to the right of Jesus in Leonardo's painting of the “Last Supper” is actually Mary Magdalene, and this has been a popular notion over the years, especially in France because she is rumored to have gone there after Jesus's death and the Resurrection. While the Bible says nothing about Jesus and Mary Magdalene being lovers, the fact that these stories were prevalent during Leonardo's time may lend credence to Dan Brown's placement of Mary Magdalene in the story.

  However, most art historians believe that the disciple in question is actually John, depicted in the androgynous form favored by Leonardo in this and other works (see number 88). Not only is there no evidence that Mary Magdalene was included in The Last Supper, it's unlikely that Leonardo was attempting any allusion to her body as the Holy Grail by including her and not a chalice in his painting. In recent years, the Catholic Church has finally put a stop to Mary Magdalene's wrongful portrayal as a prostitute, but there is still no concrete evidence proving that she and Jesus were ever married.

  While much has been made of the supposed similarities between a self-portrait of Leonardo and The Mona Lisa, it's unlikely that Leonardo intentionally painted the famous work as a female self-portrait. More likely, da Vinci's painting and drawing style resulted in similar facial shapes and other characteristics between the Mona Lisa and his self-portraits, especially since a real historical woman is believed to have been the model (see number 38). There is no evidence in any of Leonardo's writ
ings that he intended the Mona Lisa to be a representation of a union of male and female.

  Another so-called secret mentioned in The Da Vinci Code has to do with the role of anagrams in the name of Leonardo's most famous painting. The title of the painting Mona Lisa is undeniably an anagram for Anion L'Isa; however, it is also an anagram for Man As Oil, and hundreds of other possibilities in various languages that Leonardo didn't even speak. In light of that, it's a stretch to think that Leonardo intended any reference to the ancient Egyptian mother and father gods—especially since there's little or no evidence that Leonardo had any knowledge of such mythology. Remember, Leonardo didn't have much of a formal education, and he probably never studied Egyptian deities.

  So it's important to keep in mind that although works like The Da Vinci Code are fun escapes from reality, they're ultimately just fiction. Of course, the interest that Brown's novel has sparked in general art history (and, specifically, in Leonardo da Vinci) is certainly a good thing! Tourists hot on the trail of The Da Vinci Code, though, might be sorely disappointed not to find secret invisible-ink messages written in the Louvre. Nevertheless, the reward of seeing artwork like the Mona Lisa in person should be ample compensation in and of itself. Specifics of The Da Vinci Code aside, the Mona Lisa's smile is still as mysterious as anyone could ever want.

  Works Cited