The Life of Leonardo da Vinci

Podcast Transcript

On April 15, 1452, a child was born in the village of Vinci, which was then part of the Republic of Florence. It was the illegitimate son of a peasant woman and a local notary

Given his illegitimate status, no one expected much of the young man, so he was apprenticed in the studio of a local artist.

He would go on to become, not just one of the world’s greatest artists, but one of the earliest engineers and scientists of the Renaissance.

He made such a lasting impact that his name has become known around the world over 500 years later.

Learn more about Leonardo da Vinci and how he changed the world on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

When I first conceived of the idea fo this podcast, I originally had a very different format in mind.

My first idea for a pilot episode was to answer the simple question of why the Mona Lisa was the most famous painting in the world. I began researching everything, not just about the painting, but about Leonardo da Vinci.

I read Walter Isaacson’s biography on him, watched documentaries, and researched his painting style, even though I knew nothing about painting at the time.

I eventually realized I had enough content for a three-hour episode, if not more, but I shelved the idea and revived the podcast in the form you know today.

I eventually did an episode on the Mona Lisa, but it was, of course, much shorter than my original plan.

Likewise, Da Vinci’s name has appeared in many episodes, but I haven’t done an episode on him, even though he definitely deserved it.

…and so here we are.

As I noted in the introduction, Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, or Leonardo, son of ser Piero from Vinci, was born in 1452 as an illegitimate child.

This legitimacy of his birth was not trivial, but a fundamental fact that loomed over his entire life. He was the illegitimate son of Ser Piero da Vinci, a successful notary, and a peasant woman named Caterina. This illegitimate status, while socially limiting in some ways, paradoxically freed Leonardo from the traditional career paths expected of legitimate heirs.

Growing up in the countryside, young Leonardo developed an intense curiosity about the natural world that would define his entire life. He spent countless hours observing birds in flight, studying the flow of water, and examining plants with the kind of detailed attention that most adults never achieve.

This early connection with nature wasn’t just a casual interest; it was the foundation of his scientific method, which always began with direct observation rather than accepted authority.

Around 1466, when Leonardo was fourteen, his father recognized his artistic talent and arranged for him to apprentice with Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence. This decision placed Leonardo at the very heart of the Renaissance art world.

Verrocchio’s workshop wasn’t just an art studio. It was more like a combination research laboratory, engineering firm, and manufacturing center. Here, apprentices learned not only painting and sculpture but also mathematics, anatomy, engineering, and the practical skills needed to create everything from altarpieces to siege machines.

The story often told about Leonardo’s time with Verrocchio illustrates his extraordinary talent. When working together on “The Baptism of Christ,” around 1475, Leonardo painted an angel so beautiful and lifelike that Verrocchio reportedly never painted again, recognizing that his student had surpassed him.

Whether this story is literally true matters less than what it represents: Leonardo’s ability to bring a new level of naturalism and psychological depth to art was apparent from his earliest works.

In 1482, Leonardo made a bold career move that reveals much about his character and ambitions. He wrote a remarkable letter to Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, that was essentially a job application that reads like a Renaissance résumé.

Most of the letter focuses not on his artistic abilities but on his skills as a military engineer. He promises to design portable bridges, siege machines, armored vehicles, and naval weapons. Art is mentioned almost as an afterthought, though he does note he can work in sculpture, painting, and architecture “as well as any man.”

This letter shows us that Leonardo saw himself not primarily as an artist but as what we might today call a Renaissance engineer-scientist. He understood that in the politically turbulent world of 15th-century Italy, practical skills in warfare and engineering were more valuable than artistic ability alone. More importantly, it reveals his integrated approach to knowledge; he didn’t separate art from science, or theory from practice.

Everything was interconnected in his mind, which is why he didn’t think of himself exclusively as an artist.

The Milan period proved extraordinarily productive. Leonardo worked on numerous projects that showcase his interdisciplinary approach. He designed elaborate court festivals that combined engineering, art, and theater.

It can be argued that at this point, he was better known as a set designer than as a painter.

He also began serious anatomical studies, dissecting corpses to understand how the human body actually worked, knowledge he applied both to his art and his engineering projects.

He filled notebook after notebook with observations, designs, and theories, using his famous mirror writing. With it, it was possible to keep his ideas secret, or he may have used it simply because, as a left-handed person, it prevented smudging.

During this time, Leonardo also began work on what would become one of his most famous paintings: “The Last Supper.” Painted on the wall of the refectory in the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, this work demonstrates Leonardo’s revolutionary approach to art.

Rather than simply illustrating a biblical scene, he created a psychological drama, capturing the moment when Christ announces that one of his disciples will betray him. Each apostle reacts differently, their emotions and personalities revealed through gesture and expression.

Leonardo spent years on this work, studying how light falls, how fabric drapes, and how hands express emotion.

When French forces conquered Milan in 1499, Leonardo’s comfortable position ended abruptly. This began a period of his life characterized by constant movement and increasingly ambitious projects. He worked briefly in Venice, where he designed naval defenses against the Ottoman Turkish threat to the harbor.

He returned to Florence, where he began several major paintings, including the famous “Mona Lisa.” Many of these paintings were never completed.

During this period, Leonardo also undertook one of his most ambitious projects: a massive mural for the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence depicting the Battle of Anghiari.

Though the work was never completed and the partial work later destroyed, preparatory sketches that still exist show Leonardo’s ability to capture the chaos and violence of war with unprecedented realism. He studied horses in motion, analyzed how muscles move under stress, and observed how fabric and hair behave in violent action.

Leonardo’s notebooks from this period reveal the full scope of his intellectual ambitions. He designed flying machines based on careful observations of bird flight. He studied hydraulics and designed canals and irrigation systems.

He investigated optics, geology, botany, and astronomy. Most remarkably, he began to see patterns and connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena. He noticed that the branching patterns of rivers resemble those of blood vessels, which in turn resemble the branching of trees. This wasn’t a poetic metaphor but a scientific insight: Leonardo was discovering fundamental principles that govern natural systems.

Much has been made of Leonardo’s inventions, such as early versions of submarines, helicopters, and airplanes. Modern people have attempted to create his designs, and most of them don’t work as intended.

However, that isn’t really the point. Leonardo was the first person to consider these ideas. No one else had even given the concept of flight enough thought to write their ideas down and sketch possible designs.

He didn’t have the foundation of engineering or science that would come centuries later, but a simple glance at his designs for some of his inventions will easily show you that he was at least in the ballpark for what would work centuries later.

The “Mona Lisa” deserves special attention because it embodies Leonardo’s mature artistic philosophy. The painting’s revolutionary technique of sfumato, the subtle gradations of light and shadow without harsh lines, creates an almost supernatural sense of life and presence.

One of the things I learned studying the works of Leonardo is that his technique was easily identifiable. That isn’t to say someone couldn’t copy it, but analyzing the few surviving Leonardo paintings that still exist makes it easy to tell the difference when looking at something else.

The Prado Museum in Madrid has a copy of the Mona Lisa, which was likely created by one of his pupils in his studio. It isn’t a bad painting, but you can instantly tell the difference in style and technique compared to the original Mona Lisa.

The original is softer, and in the copy, the lines are much harsher. That same Leonardo technique can easily be seen in his other works, such as Salvator Mundi or Virgin of the Rocks.

In 1516, at age 64, Leonardo accepted an invitation from King Francis I of France to come to the Loire Valley. This final chapter of his life was spent at the Château du Clos Lucé, where he lived as the king’s “Premier Painter, Engineer, and Architect.”

Though his right hand was partially paralyzed, possibly from a stroke, he continued to work, teach, and theorize until his death on May 2, 1519.

It is believed that the Mona Lisa was in his possession this entire time, and he never ceased working on it.

The story of Leonardo da Vinci didn’t end with Leonardo’s life. His legacy has echoed through the centuries and can still be felt today.

Leonardo fundamentally changed what painting could be and do. Before Leonardo, most paintings served relatively simple functions: religious instruction, decoration, or basic portraiture. Leonardo demonstrated that painting could be a tool for scientific investigation, psychological exploration, and philosophical inquiry.

Leonardo changed how artists approached their subjects. His anatomical studies, based on his dissection of human corpses, gave him an understanding of human anatomy that far exceeded that of his contemporaries.

But he didn’t use this knowledge just to draw muscles more accurately. He understood how emotion affects posture and how personality is revealed through gesture.

Leonardo’s influence on subsequent artists was enormous. Raphael adopted his compositional techniques and psychological insight. Michelangelo, though often considered Leonardo’s rival, learned from his anatomical precision.

The entire Venetian school of painting, including Giorgione and Titian, built on Leonardo’s innovations in light and atmosphere. Even centuries later, artists continue to study his techniques and approaches.

Perhaps even more important than Leonardo’s artistic legacy is his contribution to the scientific method and thinking. He lived at a time when most knowledge was derived from ancient authorities like Aristotle or from religious doctrine. It was accepted as truth and wasn’t questioned.

Leonardo pioneered an approach based on direct observation, experimentation, and mathematical analysis.

Leonardo dissected corpses and drew what he saw with unprecedented precision. His drawings of the human heart, made more than 400 years before the invention of cardiac imaging, are so accurate that modern cardiologists still reference them. He was the first to describe the function of heart valves correctly and to understand that the heart has four chambers, not two, as was commonly believed.

His studies of water flow led him to design canals, locks, and irrigation systems. Some of his designs weren’t built until centuries later, when technology finally caught up with his vision. Unlike his flying machines, many of these did work.

Perhaps most importantly, Leonardo developed a systems approach to understanding the world. He saw connections everywhere: between the flow of water and the circulation of blood, between the growth of plants and the formation of rocks, between the movements of the heavens and the patterns of life on Earth.

Much of this thinking permeates science today.

The term “Renaissance Man” was created to describe Leonardo da Vinci, and there is perhaps no one more deserving of the title. He didn’t just make some of the world’s greatest works of art; he also helped advance our understanding of science and technology.