The Styrous® Viewfinder: The polymath Leonardo da Vinci

Today is the birthday of Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, known better as Leonardo da Vinci, who was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who and active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect.

A polymath is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, but some are gifted at explaining abstractly and creatively.

The word polymath derives from the Greek roots poly-, which means "much" or "many," and manthanein, which means "to learn." Plutarch wrote that the Ancient Greek muse Polyhymnia was sometimes known as Polymatheia, describing her as responsible for "that faculty of the soul which inclines to attain and keep knowledge."

The first work to use the term polymathy in its title, De Polymathia tractatio: integri operis de studiis veterum (A Treatise on Polymathy: The Complete Work on the Studies of the Ancients), was published in 1603 by Johann von Wowern, a Hamburg philosopher who defined polymathy as "knowledge of various matters, drawn from all kinds of studies … ranging freely through all the fields of the disciplines, as far as the human mind, with unwearied industry, is able to pursue them". He lists erudition, literature, philology, philomathy, and polyhistory as synonyms.

The earliest recorded use of the term in the English language is from 1624, in the second edition of The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton; the form polymathist is slightly older, first appearing in the Diatribae upon the first part of the late History of Tithes of Richard Montagu in 1621. Use in English of the similar term polyhistor dates from the late 16th century.

The term "Renaissance man" was first recorded in written English in the early 20th century. It is used to refer to great polymaths like those of the Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination". These polymaths had a rounded approach to education that reflected the ideals of the humanists of the time. A gentleman or courtier of that era was expected to speak several languages, play a musical instrument, write poetry, and so on; thus fulfilling the Renaissance ideal.

The idea of a universal education was essential to achieving polymath ability, hence the word university was used to describe a seat of learning. However, the original Latin word universitas refers in general to "a number of persons associated into one body, a society, company, community, guild, corporation, etc". At this time, universities did not specialize in specific areas, but rather trained students in a broad array of science, philosophy, and theology. This universal education gave them a grounding from which they could continue into apprenticeship toward becoming a master of a specific field.

When someone is called a "Renaissance man" today, it is meant that rather than simply having broad interests or superficial knowledge in several fields, the individual possesses a more profound knowledge and a proficiency, or even an expertise, in at least some of those fields. Some dictionaries use the term "Renaissance man" to describe someone with many interests or talents, while others give a meaning restricted to the Renaissance and more closely related to Renaissance ideals.

Through their research, Robert Root-Bernstein and colleagues conclude that there are certain comprehensive thinking skills and tools that cross the barrier of different domains and can foster creative thinking: "[creativity researchers] who discuss integrating ideas from diverse fields as the basis of creative giftedness ask not 'who is creative?' but 'what is the basis of creative thinking?' From the polymathy perspective, giftedness is the ability to combine disparate (or even apparently contradictory) ideas, sets of problems, skills, talents, and knowledge in novel and useful ways. Polymathy is therefore the main source of any individual's creative potential" In "Life Stages of Creativity", Robert and Michèle Root-Bernstein suggest six typologies of creative life stages. These typologies are based on real creative production records first published by Root-Bernstein, Bernstein, and Garnier in 1993.

Type 1 represents people who specialize in developing one major talent early in life (e.g., prodigies) and successfully exploit that talent exclusively for the rest of their lives.
Type 2 individuals explore a range of different creative activities (e.g., through worldplay or a variety of hobbies) and then settle on exploiting one of these for the rest of their lives.
Type 3 people are polymathic from the outset and manage to juggle multiple careers simultaneously so that their creativity pattern is constantly varied.
Type 4 creators are recognized early for one major talent (e.g., math or music) but go on to explore additional creative outlets, diversifying their productivity with age.
Type 5 creators devote themselves serially to one creative field after another.
Type 6 people develop diversified creative skills early and then, like Type 5 individuals, explore these serially, one at a time.

It may be presumptuous of me but I relate to Type 3 or 4 (link below).

So, back to Leonardo, he was born on the 15th of April, 1452 in, or close to, the Tuscan hill town of Vinci, Italy, 20 miles from Florence. He was born out of wedlock to Ser Piero da Vinci d'Antonio di ser Piero di ser Guido, a Florentine legal notary, and Caterina di Meo Lippi, a lower-class woman.

He was educated in Florence by the Italian painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. He began his career in the city, but then spent much time in the service of Ludovico Sforza in Milan. Later, he worked in Florence where he created his famous sketch of the hanging of Bernardo Bandini dei Baroncelli, a Florentine merchant and a protagonist in the Pazzi conspiracy, a plot to remove the Medici family from power in Florence.

Hanging of Bernardo Bandini dei Baroncelli -

December 29, 1479

drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

He returned to Milan again, then briefly in Rome, all while attracting a large following of imitators and students. Upon the invitation of Francis I, he spent his last three years in France, at Clos Lucé . . .

Château du Clos Lucé

. . . where he died on the 2nd of May in 1519, at the age of 67.

The Death of Leonardo da Vinci, by Ingres - 1818

In his Vita di Leonardo (1568), Vasari reports that, as a very young man, Leonardo represented the head of Medusa on a wooden shield after a request by his father, Ser Piero da Vinci (link below).

Beyond friendship, Leonardo kept his private life secret. His sexuality has been the subject of satire, analysis, and speculation. This trend began in the mid-16th century and was revived in the 19th and 20th centuries, mostly by Sigmund Freud in his Leonardo da Vinci, A Memory of His Childhood. Leonardo's most intimate relationships were with his pupils Salaì and Melzi. Melzi, writing to inform Leonardo's brothers of his death, described Leonardo's feelings for his pupils as both loving and passionate. It has been claimed since the 16th century that these relationships were of a sexual or erotic nature. Walter Isaacson in his biography of Leonardo makes explicit his opinion that the relations with Salaì were intimate and homosexual.