Procrastinator and Perfectionist
I woke up and wrote a jingle on Leonardo da Vinci today…the ultimate polymath.
Mysterious and remote….inventor, painter, sculptor and anatomist…… da Vinci….Architect, pilot, mathematician and botanist….daVinci….
He painted the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper and the Vetruvian Man, if anyone can draw it, Leonardo can.
Could this dude draw! When left handed Leonardo was learning painting from his teacher, Andrea del Verrocchio, he was asked to draw and paint an angel. It was so good, his teacher never painted again!
By the way, Leo was a procrastinator and perfectionist, all packaged in one. I was told that he took 10 years to finish the lips of the Mona Lisa.
Many inventions were just sketches, but not his manned flight. Today, we caught a bus to Fiesole, a hilly village north of Florence to chase down a legendary story on Leonardo da Vinci.
On the bus, we make quick friends with a woman from West London, now living in Milan with her architect husband. She is part Syrian, part Italian, mother of two sons. Very much a creative spirit, her curious children are now a scientist and the other a pre-Renaissance student. Does that he is studying da Vinci’s Dad??? Like us, she is making a pilgrimage to walk the same ground as our legendary pilot.
As we approach Mount Ceceri, we see an airline on its descent into Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Florence. Ironically, stand on the very spot where Leo and his friend Tomasso Masini launched il Nibbio (the kite)
Here in 1506, da Vinci tested his first flying machine. In his proof of concept, legend has it that he asked Thomas to pilot the kite off the peaks of Fielsole landing it near OR in what is now a near by largo (lake).
While in the town, we did some deeper investigation with the local faculty of the school of architecture and found a note in da Vinci’s Codex on the Flight of Birds where he mentioned that Thomas’ test flight ended with a broken leg and ribs. If true, man took flight four hundred years earlier than the bicycling Wright Brothers in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina!
On this particular day, we were enamored by students installing an art exhibit honoring the 500th anniversary of Leo’s death. Part of the exhibit included the unveiling of a modern day il Nibbio. We watched in amazement as three students climbed to the top of Ceceri, attached their kite to a wire and honored their favorite architect, pilot, botanist and scientist with this recreated flight of fancy.
And it really worked. From the artist mind, to a sketch all the way to construction and flight, il Nibbio worked. No procrastination, just perfection.
Oh Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, you were the ultimate polymath. Beyond my jingle, you were a whole lot more. Add engineer, writer, musician, geologist, agronomist, and curious historian. And to your final words on earth….”I have offended God and mankind. My work did not reach the quality it should have.” What you accomplished truly mattered, but your tenacity to finish with excellence was admirable.