Leonardo Da Vinci

His essence wouldn't change here.

The difference would be that he now had access to what he had spent his whole life searching for.

Curiosity: multiplied a thousandfold.

In the 15th century, Leonardo had to draw a machine to imagine how it might work.

In 2026, he can mentally take apart a car by watching a video.

He can study DNA.

He can observe a living cell using modern microscopy.

He can view images of galaxies billions of light-years away.

He can virtually enter the human body.

For him, it would essentially be:

"Are you telling me you can actually see this now?"

And every answer would spark twenty more questions.

He would be intellectually far more driven.

The historical Leonardo might juggle several projects at once.

The 2026 Leonardo would have instant access to virtually all human knowledge.

That would be incredibly dangerous.

A car sparks his curiosity.

Then he discovers the engine.

Then electricity.

Then batteries.

Then physics.

Then chemistry.

Then atomic structure.

And suddenly, he’s asking about nuclear energy.

His problem would remain the same:

Leonardo wants to know everything.

Except now, the Internet would give him the tools to try.

He would be constantly filled with wonder.

And I think this would be a fundamental difference.

The 15th-century Leonardo lived in an extraordinary world but had very few means to verify his questions.

The 2026 Leonardo could literally find an answer in seconds.

You tell him:

"Leonardo, humans landed on the Moon."

Silence.

"They arrived... physically?"

"Yes."

"I want to see it."

You show him Apollo photographs.

Then a video.

Then images of Earth from the Moon.

And he would likely fall silent for several minutes.

Because that touches directly upon his lifelong obsession:

flight.

He would still be a perfectionist, but he would face a new adversary: ​​technology.

He would discover Photoshop.

3D printers.

CAD.

3D modeling.

Digital cameras.

Physics simulations. Artificial intelligence.

And I’d probably have a love-hate relationship with it all.

"This allows you to draw a machine."

—Yes.

"And modify it immediately."

—Yes.

"And verify if it works via simulation."

—Yes.

"...Why did it take you five hundred years?"

The Leonardo of 2026 would have to learn something the historical Leonardo never had to face:

living in a society where practically anyone can access knowledge.

He would no longer necessarily be the most knowledgeable person in the room.

And I think that could spark two things in him:

humility and competitiveness.

He would see thousands of scientists, engineers, artists, and doctors doing things he could never have imagined.

But instead of feeling useless, he would likely think:

"I want to meet them."

Because Leonardo possessed a fundamental trait: he loved learning more than he needed to be right.

Leonardo da Vinci in his lifetime — 15th century

Curious: His most defining trait. Leonardo wanted to understand how things worked, from the flight of a bird to human muscles. It was not enough for him to simply accept an explanation; he needed to observe and study it for himself.

Observant: He paid extraordinary attention to detail. He could spend a great deal of time studying a facial expression, a hand, a current of water, or the anatomy of a cadaver. His way of learning was fundamentally visual and experimental.

Intellectually ambitious: He does not seem to have been interested solely in being a good painter. He wanted to master multiple disciplines and become someone capable of understanding nature as a whole. He held an almost universalist view of knowledge.

Restless and nonconformist: Leonardo might start a project and abandon it when something else arose that sparked greater curiosity. This contributed to his leaving several works unfinished. His mind seemed to move faster than his projects.

Reserved: He was not an overly public figure. His notebooks reveal a great deal about his thinking, but that does not mean he shared everything on his mind with others. He possessed an intellectual world that was very much his own.

Perfectionist: Paradoxically, his curiosity and perfectionism could work against him. The more he studied something, the more aware he became of everything that could still be perfected.

Practical when necessary: ​​Although we remember him today as an artist and thinker, he worked for courts and rulers, designing fortifications, machines, stage sets, weapons, and architectural projects. He knew how to turn his knowledge into something useful for those who paid for it.

Skeptical of received knowledge: This does not mean he rejected all authority, but he had a marked inclination toward direct observation. His attitude was something like:

"Don't tell me how it works. Let me see it."

Religiously complex: He was a man of a deeply Christian society and produced a vast amount of religious art, yet his personal spirituality cannot be reconstructed with the same certainty as that of figures like Joan of Arc. His relationship with God seems to have been closely linked to his fascination with nature and the order of creation.

Leonardo has the appearance of an old man with a beard and long, wavy white hair; he has a somewhat hooked nose, dark eyes, and wrinkles all over his face. He wears a black hat to cover his partial baldness and is dressed in blue robes.

In September 1515, the new King of France , Francis I , recaptured Milan after winning the Battle of Marignano . [ 45 ] In November of the same year, Leonardo designed a new project for the layout of the Medici quarter in Florence. On December 19, he was present at the meeting between Francis I and Pope Leo X held in Bologna . [ 19 ] [ 46 ] [ 47 ] Francis I commissioned Leonardo to create a mechanical lion that could walk and whose chest opened to reveal the fleur-de-lis . [ 21 ] It is not known for what occasion this lion was conceived, but it may be related to the king's arrival in Lyon , or to the peace talks between the king and the pope.
In 1516, he left for France with his assistant, the painter Francesco Melzi , and also with Salai, who accompanied them as far as Milan. [ 48 ] [ 44 ] His new patron and protector, King Francis I of France, installed them in the house where he had lived in his childhood, the Château du Clos Lucé , near the Château d'Amboise . He was the "king's first painter, first engineer, and first architect," [ 16 ] and received a pension of 10,000 scudi. [ 11 ] At the French court, they were more interested in the painter than in the engineer, which in Italy was the most highly valued skill. [ 17 ] The fact that Francis I gave him the Château du Clos Lucé can be understood as a message to Leonardo to "do as he pleased." He was not the first artist to receive this honor, as Andrea Solario and Giovanni Giocondo had preceded him a few years earlier. [ 44 ] Leonardo designed the royal palace of Romorantin, which Francis I intended to build for his mother, Louise of Savoy: it would be a small city, for which he planned the diversion of a river to enrich it with water and fertilize the neighboring countryside. In 1518, he participated in the celebrations of the Dauphin's baptism and the wedding of Lorenzo de' Medici to a niece of the French king. That same year, Salai again left Leonardo and returned to Milan, where he died in a duel on January 19, 1524. [ 17 ]

On April 23, 1519, Leonardo, who had been ill for several months, drew up his will before a notary in Amboise. He requested a priest to hear his confession and receive the last rites . He died on May 2, 1519, in Cloux , at the age of 67. Tradition holds that he died in the arms of Francis I, but this is probably based on a misinterpretation of an inscription written by Giorgio Vasari:

In 1504, he returned to work in Milan, which at that time was under the control of Maximilian Sforza thanks to the support of Swiss mercenaries . Many students and those interested in painting met or worked with Leonardo in Milan, including Bernardino Luini , Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio , and Marco d'Oggiono . [ Note 7 ] His father died on July 9, and Leonardo was disinherited due to his illegitimacy; however, his uncle later made him his sole heir. [ 39 ] That same year, Leonardo undertook anatomical studies and attempted to classify his countless notes. It was also during this period that he began work on the Mona Lisa (1503–1506, and later 1510–1515), a work usually considered a portrait of Lisa Gherardini , or, by her married name, Monna Lisa del Giocondo . However, there are numerous interpretations of this painting that are still the subject of debate and discussion.

In 1505, he devoted himself to studying the flight of birds, from which he wrote the Codex on the Flight of Birds . [ 43 ] From then on, observations, experiments, and reconstructions followed one another with great intensity. [ 17 ] A year later, the Florentine government allowed him to meet with the French governor of Milan, Charles d'Amboise , who kept him with him despite protests from Florence. Leonardo found himself caught in the middle of disputes between the French and Tuscans , and was pressured by the court to finish The Virgin of the Rocks with his pupil Ambrogio de Predis , while he was working on The Battle of Anghiari . [ 39 ]

In 1507, Leonardo became the sole heir of his uncle Francesco, but Leonardo's brothers began proceedings to modify the will. [ 39 ] Leonardo appealed to Charles d'Amboise and Florimond Robertet to intervene on his behalf; [ 39 ] Louis XII returned to Milan and Leonardo again became the organizer of the festivities held in the Lombard capital.

In 1508, he lived with the sculptor Giovanni Francesco Rustica at the house of Piero di Braccio Martelli in Florence, [ 44 ] but then left and went to live in Milan, at the Porta Orientale, in the parish of Santa Babila. [ 11 ] Louis XII soon returned to Italy and in May 1509 entered Milan. He soon led his armies against Venice, and Leonardo followed the king as a military engineer and attended the Battle of Agnadel . [ 17 ] In 1511, Governor Charles d'Amboise died, and in 1512, after the Battle of Ravenna , France withdrew from Italian territory. This second Milanese period allowed Leonardo to further his investigations in pure science. In 1509, the publication of Giorgio Valla 's De expendentis te fugiendis rebus had a great influence on him. [ 17 ]

In September 1513, Leonardo went to Rome, where he worked for Pope Leo X , a member of the wealthy and powerful Medici family. At that time, Raphael and Michelangelo were very busy at the Vatican . [ 11 ] Given Sangallo 's success , Leonardo received only modest commissions and seems not to have participated in either the construction of the numerous, relatively unimportant Roman fortresses or the beautification of the capital. His painting also failed to achieve success, and he turned to another specialty, perhaps his favorite: hydraulics . He undertook a project to drain the Pontine Marshes , which belonged to Duke Giuliano II de' Medici . [ 17 ] In 1514, he created the series of paintings of the Deluges , which was a partial response to the great work Michelangelo had developed on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel .

“The Medici created me, the Medici destroyed me,” Leonardo wrote, no doubt to underscore the disappointments of his time in Rome. He felt he would never be allowed to demonstrate his ability by completing a major commission. His instability, his tendency to become easily discouraged, and his difficulty in finishing what he started were probably also well known.

In March 1499, Leonardo worked as an architect and military engineer for the Venetians, who wanted to build defenses around their city. [ 11 ] [ 19 ] For this reason, he developed systems to defend the city from a possible naval attack by the Turks , and among his proposals was the invention of a type of diving suit with a rudimentary helmet. The Turks did not attack, and the invention was never used. At the end of April, he returned to Florence, and there, after studying the waterways in Friuli , he proposed a system of locks to raise the course of the Isonzo River and thus flood an entire region surrounding Venice .
He returned to Venice in April 1500 to stay there for a couple of months after having been in Mantua in the company of the mathematician friar Luca Pacioli . In Mantua, he painted a portrait of Isabella d'Este . A letter of April 4, 1501, in which Pierre de Nuvola replies to the Duchess of Mantua, regarding Leonardo, states that "his mathematical studies have taken him away from painting"; Leonardo continued to carry out extensive research. [ 17 ] In 1501, at the convent of Santissima Annunziata, he received approval to make a sketch of what would become The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist , a work that provoked such admiration that "men and women, young and old" came to observe it "as if they were participating in a great festival." [ 21 ] [ 41 ] He made a brief stay in Rome, at Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli. [ 39 ] He was working on the Madonna of the Spindles , a commission from Florimond Robertet, the Secretary of State to Louis XII of France.

On October 18, 1503, he returned to Florence, where he practiced as an architect and hydraulic engineer. [ 17 ] He re-enrolled in the Guild of Saint Luke and devoted two years (1503–1505) to the preparation and execution of The Battle of Anghiari , a mural painting measuring seven by seventeen meters, [ 11 ] [ 39 ] while Michelangelo painted The Battle of Cascina on the opposite wall. [ 39 ] Both works have been lost. Michelangelo's work is known from a copy by Aristotole da Sangallo of 1542, [ 42 ] and Leonardo's painting from preparatory sketches and several copies of the central section, of which Rubens's is undoubtedly the most outstanding . [ 11 ] It appears that the alterations to the work were caused by the fire used to dry the paint more quickly or by the quality of the materials used; It was later covered, probably with a fresco by Giorgio Vasari.

Leonardo was often consulted as an expert, for example, to study the stability of the bell tower of San Miniato al Monte and when the site for Michelangelo's David was chosen, [ 39 ] on which his opinion differed from Michelangelo's. It was during this period that he presented to the city of Florence his project for diverting the Arno River , intended, on the one hand, to create a navigable waterway connecting Florence to the sea and, on the other, to allow for the control of the terrible floods. [ 17 ] This period was important for Leonardo's scientific development.

In 1481, the monastery of San Donato commissioned him to paint the Adoration of the Magi , but Leonardo never finished this painting, probably disappointed or humiliated at not having been chosen by Pope Sixtus IV to decorate the Sistine Chapel in the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican , in Rome, where there was fierce competition among several painters. [ 30 ] Neoplatonism , which was fashionable in Florence at the time, may also have played an important role in his decision to move to a more open, academic, and pragmatic city like Sforza Milan. [ 30 ] This new environment was probably more in tune with his spirit, which was based on the empirical development of his many experiments.

Leonardo painted The Virgin of the Rocks (1483-1486) for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, which was to be housed in the church of San Francesco Grande in Milan. This painting sparked a conflict between the artist and the owners that lasted several years. [ 30 ] Leonardo obtained the right to copy the work, but a legal dispute ensued, [ 31 ] which was not resolved until after court decisions and the intervention of some friends. Ultimately, two versions of the painting existed.

n Florence, Leonardo's work did not go unnoticed. Lorenzo de' Medici learned that he had created a silver lyre in the shape of a horse's head. Impressed by the quality of his work, he sent Leonardo with it to Milan as a Florentine emissary, and also to work for the patron and Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza . The aim of this maneuver was to maintain good relations with this important rival. [ 32 ] He was probably accompanied by the musician Atalante Migliorotti . [ 30 ] He also wrote a letter to the Duke, which is in the Codex Atlanticus , in which he describes Leonardo's many and varied skills in engineering and informs him that he is also a painter. [ 33 ] [ 22 ] Thus, Leonardo's main occupation from then on was that of an engineer. He was listed among the Sforza's engineers and, when he was sent to Pavia on June 21, 1493, he did so with the title of "ingéniarius ducalis" (ducal engineer). [ 17 ] Sforza commissioned him to carry out various works and gave him the title of "Apelles Florentino" (Florentine Apelles), a title reserved only for great painters. [ 30 ] In this way, he dedicated himself to "organizing parties and spectacles with sumptuous decorations" in the palace and inventing stage machinery , such as for the weddings of Ludovico Sforza and Beatrice d'Este and of Anna Sforza and Alfonso I d'Este . He also painted several portraits of the Milanese court. This contact between Leonardo and the enlightened elites of Milan made him aware of the gaps in his training. [ 17 ]

He worked on both the study for the dome of Milan Cathedral and the creation of the clay model for the mold of "Il Cavallo," an equestrian statue in honor of Francesco I Sforza , Ludovico's father. It was to be cast in seventy tons of bronze, a true technical feat for the time. [ 34 ] The statue remained unfinished for several years. [ 19 ] By the time Leonardo had finished the clay model and had drawn up plans for the casting process, the bronze was used to make cannons, as the city had to be defended against the invasion of Charles VIII of France .

The young Leonardo was a nature lover, observing it with great curiosity. He drew caricatures and practiced mirror writing in the Tuscan dialect . Vasari recounts an anecdote about the early stages of his career: “One day, Ser Piero took some of his drawings and showed them to his friend Andrea del Verrocchio , insistently asking him if Leonardo could dedicate himself to the art of drawing and if he could achieve anything in this field. Andrea was greatly surprised by Leonardo’s extraordinary gifts and recommended to Ser Piero that he let him choose this profession, so Ser Piero decided that Leonardo would enter Verrocchio’s workshop. Leonardo readily agreed and, not content with practicing this craft, undertook everything related to the art of drawing.” Thus, from 1469 onwards, Leonardo entered as an apprentice in one of the most prestigious art workshops under Andrea del Verrocchio, to whom he owes part of his excellent multidisciplinary training, in which he came into contact with other artists such as Sandro Botticelli , Perugino , and Domenico Ghirlandaio . [ 19 ] [ 22 ] Indeed, at the end of 1468, although Leonardo was registered as a resident of the municipality of Vinci, he traveled very often to Florence , where his father worked. [ 10 ]

Verrocchio was a renowned artist, [ 23 ] and very eclectic. He was trained as a goldsmith and blacksmith, [ 22 ] but he was also a painter, sculptor, and metal founder . He worked mainly for the powerful Lorenzo de' Medici . [ 24 ] Leonardo also worked with Antonio Pollaiuolo , whose workshop was very close to Verrocchio's.

After a year spent cleaning brushes and performing other minor apprentice tasks, Verrocchio introduced Leonardo to the numerous techniques practiced in a traditional workshop. In this context, Leonardo had the opportunity to learn the basics of chemistry , metallurgy , leather and plaster working , mechanics , and carpentry , as well as various artistic techniques such as drawing , painting , and sculpture in marble and bronze. [ 25 ] [ 26 ] He also received training in preparing pigments, engraving, and fresco painting. Recognizing his exceptional talent, Verrocchio decided to entrust his pupil with completing some of his works.

e was born on Saturday, April 15, 1452, "at the third hour of the night," that is, three hours after the Ave Maria : at half past ten. [ 10 ] It has been debated whether the birth took place in the castle of Vinci , a town about 25 km (15 miles) as the crow flies from Florence , or in his mother's house in Anchiano , a hamlet about two kilometers (1.5 miles) from Vinci. [ Note 4 ] Leonardo, a descendant of a wealthy family of Italian nobles, was illegitimate: his father, Messer Piero Fruosino di Antonio ( notary , chancellor , and ambassador of the Republic of Florence ), impregnated Caterina, a young woman from a peasant family, [ 11 ] [ 12 ] who has been suspected of having been a Circassian slave from the Middle East , from the Caucasus Mountains . [ 13 ] [ 14 ] Martin Kemp, Emeritus Professor of Art History at Oxford University , after researching in Tuscan archives, discovered documents that would confirm the date of birth, which took place at his father's farmhouse, just over a kilometer from Vinci, and that his mother was a fifteen-year-old local peasant girl, Caterina di Meo Lippi. Piero was already betrothed, and the child was given to his paternal grandfather, Antonio da Vinci, who probably gave a sum of money to the mother as a dowry so that she could marry. In tax returns from 1457, Antonio declared that his grandson lived with him, and Caterina appears married to a peasant, Antonio di Piero Buti.

Leonardo, or Lionardo according to his baptismal certificate, [ 10 ] was baptized and spent his first five years in his father's house in Vinci, [ 10 ] where he was treated as a legitimate son. [ 16 ] He had five godmothers and five godfathers, all of them inhabitants of the town. [ 10 ] He learned to read and write and acquired knowledge of arithmetic ; however, he learned practically no Latin , the basis of traditional education. The fact that he had chaotic spelling shows that his instruction was not without gaps; in any case, it was not that of a university student. [ 17 ]

At that time, modern conventions for personal names had not yet developed in Europe, so only the great families used patronymic surnames . Common people were usually referred to by their given name, to which various details were added: the father's name, place of origin, a nickname, the master's name in the case of artisans, and so on. Consequently, the artist's name would be Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, meaning "Leonardo, son of Master Piero da Vinci"; the term "da" is not capitalized because it is not a surname. [ 18 ] Leonardo himself simply signed his works as "Leonardo" or "Io, Leonardo" ("I, Leonardo"), so most authorities attribute his works to "Leonardo" without the "da Vinci." It is plausible that he refrained from using his father's surname because he was an illegitimate child. "Vinci" comes from "vinchi", the name given to rush-like plants that grow in the vicinity of the Vincio stream and were used by Tuscan artisans. [ 10 ]

In 1457, when Leonardo was five years old, his mother married Antonio di Piero Buti del Vacca da Vinci, a local peasant, with whom she had five children. [ 10 ] He was then taken into the home of his father's family in the town of Vinci. Meanwhile, his father had married a sixteen-year-old girl from a wealthy Florentine family , Albiera degli Amadori. [ 10 ] Having no children of her own, she devoted her affection to Leonardo, but died very young due to complications from childbirth in 1464. [ 10 ] Although he was fully considered his father's son from birth, Leonardo was never formally recognized as legitimate. His father married four times and had ten legitimate sons and two daughters. [ 10 ] Of these relationships, young Leonardo had a very good bond with his father's last wife, Lucrezia Guglielmo Cortigiani , an affection that is evident in a note where he addresses her as "dear and sweet mother". [ 10 ]

His paternal grandmother, Lucia di ser Piero di Zoso, a ceramist close to Leonardo, was probably the one who introduced him to the arts. [ 10 ] A well-known omen relates that a kite descended from the sky and hovered over his cradle, touching his face with its tail. [ 19 ] [ 20 ] Giorgio Vasari , the 16th- century biographer of Renaissance painters, recounts in Le Vite (1568) the story of a local peasant who asked ser Piero [ Note 5 ] to have his son paint a picture on a plaque. Leonardo then painted a depiction of a fire-breathing dragon, so well executed that ser Piero sold it to a Florentine art dealer, who in turn resold it to the Duke of Milan. Having thus profited from the sale, ser Piero bought a plaque decorated with a heart pierced by an arrow, which he gave to the peasant.