Things I Took Away from the da Vinci Exhibit (4 of 4)
Things I Took Away (4 of 4)
Wall mural of The Last Supper- Facsimiles of Leonardo da Vinci's
paintings were displayed with interactive elements.
First, like all of us, Leonardo was shaped by his personal history and circumstances. He was the son of an unmarried peasant woman and this determined his station in life, affording him no prospects for a formal education. He did receive informal education on a few subjects, but he was essentially self-taught. His curiosity fueled his search for knowledge.
While in certain respects this may be viewed as a liability, it seems to me that, to Leonardo it was an advantage. He was not trained to think about limitations; he was like a sponge, taking in the world around him. His observations gave him the fundamentals and no one was whispering in his ear that something couldn't be done, simply because it hadn't been done before.
It reminds me of the "Test the Impossible" MAC television commercial:
"You have no idea what you're doing. This is great.
People who know what they're doing, know the rules and they know what is possible and what is impossible... you do not.
The rules on what is possible and impossible in the arts were made by people who had not tested the bounds of the possible by going beyond them. And you can."
(see this link to view the ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVwwkAJposE )
Second, Leonardo apparently did have contact with his father who was a legal notary charged with recording facts and drafting documents for civil law. It was suggested that exposure to this attention to detail contributed to his lifelong habit of filling pages with notes and sketches.
What is important to me about this observation is that he did pour out whatever came to mind, without a judgement or evaluation on the value of the idea. Perhaps he would pursue and develop a concept. Perhaps he would leave an idea for an artisan to build hundreds of years in the future. It was just really important to him that the idea was recorded.
How lucky scholars are to have documentation of the thought process of this genius, but one lesson we can learn from Leonardo is that the creative process is an evolution which involves unselfconscious experimentation. Leonardo demonstrated that it is the open thought that leads to ever fresh and inspired creativity. I would venture to say that his habit of getting it all down on paper was an act of emptying consciousness to make room for new ideas.
Leonardo da Vinci clearly reveled in the joys of the creative process which opened new horizons to him. He saw things far beyond what his humble history would have suggested was possible for him. He never limited himself,... and maybe that was his true genius.
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum
overlooking the mountains of SoCal
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