NEW YEAR, SAME LEO
Skilled Inventor, Sometimes Painter, Seeks Employment
“I have cannons to hurl small stones almost like a hail-storm. I can also paint.” Leonardo da Vinci
Even a Renaissance Man is occasionally on the hunt for a job. New circumstances, new beginnings, new hope. Thus in the early 1480s Leonardo da Vinci rode north from Florence to Milan with his resume to offer his services to a man he did not know, Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza. Did the militaristic Milanese duke want a court painter? No. So, our animal-loving, cat-fancying vegetarian, Leonardo, slanted his job application to emphasize his skills as a military engineer. (Oh, Leonardo!) Still, as any job counselor will tell you, this is what we must do. (As in query letters to literary agents and editors, and so on, but I digress).
Name: Leonardo da Vinci
DOB: 15 April 1452
Birthplace: Vinci, Commune (Village) of Florence, Tuscany
Most Current Residence: Florence
Formal Education: None
Other: Apprentice at Verrocchio & Company, Florence.
References: Unavailable
Employment Desired: Military Expert and Weaponeer
Skills: Bridgebuilding, Weaponry. Artillery. “PS: I can also execute sculpture in marble, bronze and clay, and paint.”
Bottom line? In the latter half of the fifteenth-century, Florence teemed with painters. Leonardo (whose reputation in Florence for “not ever finishing anything he started” was growing) needed work. Desperately. It’s important to understand that this man in his early thirties who possessed a head of luxurious blond hair and “a beauty of body never sufficiently extolled” (Vasari) was not unwillingly forsaking painting in order to support himself. No. Leonardo reveled in inventing—or reinventing—himself, not only in trying something new, but in creating something that was new to the world…
…Like wings and a helicopter so we might fly. These inventions didn’t work, but he tried. What would he think of the fact that Rome’s Fiumicino Airport, the “Leonardo da Vinci Airport” is named for him? Surely, his heart would soar.
That is my hope for all of us in 2024. Whatever our endeavors, let’s fly. Good luck, good journey, and may we all land safely wherever it is we wish to go.
{Postscript: Why would Leonardo not have a formal education? He was the son of a wealthy Florentine notary but, since Leonardo was “illegitimate,” he was forbidden a university education. No Latin for him—the language of scholars at the time. Thus, he apprenticed with the busiest workshop in Florence, learning the craft of painting and, well, everything else.
Did he get the job? Yes. As a military engineer, not so much. For the most part, the Milanese duke set Leonardo (who was a gifted musician and singer) to work composing satires and jests and designing stage settings, along with costumes and masks.
And yet. In the wondrous way of things, ten years after Leonardo arrived in Milan, the duke commissioned him to paint a last supper on the refectory wall in Santa Maria delle Grazie. Tragically, now Leonardo’s Last Supper is fading and slipping from its surface—but even after WWII bombings, it remains. Leonardo, your painting on that church wall is considered one of the greatest paintings in the world, along with your Mona Lisa. You are still here.
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Love it! "I can also paint" -LOL! Informative and delightful post.
Oh yeah. He could paint a little.