Leonardo da Vinci: The Original Renaissance Man

Introduction

The Renaissance was a time in which humanism and classical order united at the height of Christendom's cultural power. The Renaissance would eventually be eclipsed by the Protestant Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the Age of Enlightenment — all of which in some way reduced the achievements of the Renaissance and undermined the accomplishments of the era's greats. Leonardo da Vinci was one such great of the Renaissance. It may be said that he was the very first Renaissance Man, as he was interested in everything — from painting to physiology to mathematics to military tactics. He certainly did it all, and his notebooks, drawings, inventions, and ideas show just how capable he was of doing everything required of a truly Renaissance Man.

Leonardo at the Beginning

Like many young men in Italy in the 15th century, Leonardo carved out a path for himself in Florence. After six years of apprenticeship, he was admitted into the Guild of St. Luke in 1472.¹ The Guild of St. Luke, like its namesake,² was formed for artists and medical doctors — which shows that Leonardo was not just interested in art from the beginning but also in the human body and how to heal it. He had a powerful, scientific mind that was constantly searching for new challenges. Thus, for all the work that Leonardo actually took on, he rarely completed much of it. He was an idea man who was always looking to throw himself into something different. Before leaving for Milan in 1482, he left behind the unfinished Adoration of the Magi that he had been commissioned to paint by the monks of San Donato a Scopeto.³ He was off to work for the Milanese Court, where he would take up an interest in human anatomy and produce many of the medical notebooks containing drawings and notes on the human body that would be studied for ages to come.

It was in Milan that Leonardo painted two of his most famous works — Virgin of the Rocks (an altarpiece) and the Last Supper. True to his revolutionary nature, the Last Supper fresco was not executed in the same style as previous frescoes, which were done with watercolor on fresh plaster; Leonardo made his with oil-based paint — which ultimately turned out to be a disaster, as the paint did not adhere properly and before half a century had passed it had become mainly a collection of splotches on the wall.⁴ Today, the Last Supper is effectively a reconstruction of Leonardo's original, meaning that what one views now is the work of many artists over the centuries. Nonetheless, the Last Supper in its own right remains revolutionary for many other reasons, which are discussed in the following section.

Leonardo's artwork was revolutionary for its time, as he pushed the boundaries of what had come before and sought to introduce a degree of realism in his work that had never previously been attempted. He was so dedicated to achieving perfection in his art — and yet simultaneously conscious of failing to achieve the sublime ideals he felt his work should reflect — that he once said, "I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have."⁵ This from the man who painted the Mona Lisa, the Salvator Mundi, and the Last Supper: above all, the Last Supper is recognized for the profound manner in which it revolutionized the painting of religious subjects.

Artwork and Artistic Innovation

The stylistic treatment of the Last Supper is deeply humanistic in its earthliness, which was revolutionary in itself at the time. Earlier paintings of the Last Supper carried with them a kind of Byzantine formalism — the figures were composed, the setting formal, the piety and saintliness of the Apostles evident, and the separation of Judas from the others obvious. With Leonardo's painting, the human side of the story emerged: each Apostle is shown attempting to cope with an idea he simply cannot comprehend — the idea of Christ becoming the meal, the bread and wine that Catholics in Leonardo's day would receive in Holy Communion.⁶ Unlike in prior paintings, which depicted the saints of the Last Supper scene with halos, in Leonardo's version the halos are gone. There is no direct symbolism or attempt by Leonardo to portray these figures in a formalistic way. The focus is on the human rather than the divine — though the divine is certainly manifested in Christ's calmness and in the vanishing point that passes through his head. Christ himself is moreover framed by the rectangular window behind him, which serves to create the effect of a halo — a naturalistic one, to be sure, but one nonetheless. Thus, Leonardo incorporates the setting — the architecture — in order to convey the idea of holiness in Christ. The serenity of the blue sky visible through the window couples with Christ's serene expression, rooting the composition in the heavenly, while the rest of the Apostles at the table grapple with the same mystery — and while the viewer himself must also work to view and understand the multiple narratives unfolding at once.

Stylistically, Leonardo's Last Supper contains much more depth than Castagno's, which has a Byzantine flatness to it. Ghirlandaio's has a little more depth — but not nearly as much as Leonardo's — which appears to reach back forever, into eternity itself in those blue skies beyond the window. The way that the bodies of the Apostles are arranged one atop another in clusters of three also gives the composition depth and a degree of realism lacking in the two earlier paintings.⁷

Overall, Leonardo's Last Supper — emblematic of all his artistic work — is revolutionary because it takes one of the most important scenes in the Gospel and renders it in new, accessible terms while weaving multiple narratives together so that a degree of mystery about the exact sequence of events transpiring in the composition remains open for debate. The painting challenges the viewer to meditate on multiple lines of activity, contrast themes, and contemplate the depth, structure, and manifestation of the divine in a painting that is deeply rooted in the human. Leonardo's Last Supper thus builds on the works of earlier painters by breaking out of the formalism of the Byzantine model into the expressive, humanistic arena where emphasis is placed on realism.

In this manner, Leonardo foreshadowed the coming Baroque era, because the composition focuses on the dramatic tension of the scene and explores several different ideas through the reactions of the Apostles as Christ opens up to them and presents mysteries that overwhelm them. The viewer is asked to bear this openness equally — to attempt to lift himself up to the level of the painting while still feeling held at a distance, like a layman at the sanctuary railing, able to see what is happening at the altar where the Body and Blood of Christ is made present in the Eucharist. Leonardo's table in the Last Supper is a symbol of the altar, and the Eucharistic miracle is apparent amidst the swirling chaos of the concept of betrayal. Thus, Leonardo makes a long-standing ritual of the Church into a dramatic, tension-filled situation that the Renaissance Christian could easily recognize and be moved by while considering the various symbolic, stylistic, and compositional qualities of the work. In doing so, Leonardo single-handedly redefined the art of the ages.

Leonardo was also interested in architecture, sculpture, music, and drawing. His projected sculpture of Charles II d'Amboise — based on studies of horses in his journal and taken only as far as a wax model — reveals the refinement in his design sensibility.⁸ His Vitruvian Man stands as one of the most iconic drawings of all time, and his sketch of a fetus in the womb demonstrates his keen medical knowledge as well. His scientific drawings were studied for their anatomical accuracy,⁹ and Michelangelo was among those who followed in Leonardo's footsteps by focusing on the muscles and anatomy of the human body when developing his most celebrated forms.

In 1499, upon leaving Milan, Leonardo ventured to Venice and took up work as a military architect. His accomplishments there brought him further renown, and he was later enlisted in Cesena in 1502 under the son of the Pope to serve as military engineer for Cesare Borgia. Leonardo's map of Imola was a work of genius and prompted Cesare to hire him on the spot.¹⁰ Every detail of the city was illustrated in the map — every street, church, square, and parcel of land — nothing was omitted. As a cartographer, Leonardo would have been remembered as one of the greats, yet cartography was barely one small aspect of what he contributed to the world. The fact that he is not primarily known as a mapmaker is further testimony to his genius and true Renaissance nature: he was everywhere, not merely dabbling in everything but actually pushing the boundaries of every field, expanding on what had come before, and taking old ideas in new directions.