Leonardo da Vinci wanted to know how everything worked.
He was one of the greatest painters the world has ever known, but his interests extended far beyond art. He investigated the natural world with an insatiable curiosity, moving between subjects that others regarded as entirely separate. An investigation begun for one purpose frequently led him somewhere unexpected.
His extraordinary talents developed during one of the most inventive, ambitious and turbulent periods in European history.
A Young Man in Florence
Leonardo was born in 1452 near Vinci, a small Tuscan town west of Florence. His father, Ser Piero, was a notary; his mother, Caterina, came from more modest circumstances. His parents never married, and both subsequently married other people. Leonardo grew up largely within his father’s extended family.
He received an informal education that emphasized practical subjects rather than the classical scholarship expected of university students. As a teenager, he entered the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, one of Florence’s most accomplished artists and craftsmen.
Verrocchio’s workshop was far more than a painting studio. Its apprentices learned drawing, sculpture, metalworking and the techniques required to produce elaborate commissions. A single project might involve mathematics, geometry, chemistry and an understanding of how materials behaved.
Florence itself was a remarkable place to develop his talents. Wealth generated through commerce, banking and textile production supported ambitious artistic and architectural projects. The city’s workshops brought together craftsmen whose practical knowledge was often as impressive as the learning of university scholars.
Leonardo belonged to this world of skilled makers. He learned by observing, experimenting and working with his hands, developing a confidence in direct experience that would remain central to his investigations.
He also possessed an exceptional ability to draw. His surviving studies reveal not merely technical skill, but a remarkable sensitivity to movement, proportion and the smallest variations in the natural world.
A Patchwork of Rival States
The Italy of Leonardo’s lifetime bore little resemblance to the unified country we know today.
The peninsula was divided among competing powers. Florence was a republic, although influential families exercised considerable control over its politics. Milan was ruled by a ducal dynasty, Venice governed an extensive maritime republic, the pope controlled territories across central Italy, and the Kingdom of Naples dominated much of the south.
These states competed for territory, influence and commercial advantage. Alliances shifted, armies marched, and powerful families struggled to preserve their positions. France and Spain increasingly intervened in the peninsula’s affairs, adding another layer of instability.
Yet political rivalry also encouraged extraordinary cultural ambition.
Rulers, merchants and wealthy families sought to demonstrate their importance through magnificent buildings, paintings, sculpture and elaborate public celebrations. Engineers were needed to construct fortifications, improve waterways and devise military equipment. Artists and craftsmen could find opportunities wherever a patron possessed sufficient wealth and ambition.
For an artist whose interests extended well beyond painting, the competing courts of Renaissance Italy offered possibilities that Florence alone could not provide. In 1482, Leonardo left for Milan, where Ludovico Sforza was emerging as the duchy’s dominant political figure and where his engineering skills might prove as valuable as his artistic talents.
Leonardo introduced himself with a remarkable letter describing the services he could provide. Most concerned military engineering: bridges, fortifications, siege equipment and other devices useful in warfare. Only towards the end did he mention his abilities as a painter and sculptor. It was a striking presentation from someone who would become one of history’s most celebrated artists.
Art, Engineering and the Milanese Court
At the Sforza court, he found opportunities to pursue an astonishing variety of interests. He designed elaborate theatrical entertainments, investigated engineering problems and worked on architectural projects. He undertook an ambitious equestrian monument honouring Francesco Sforza, Ludovico’s father, studying horses in extraordinary detail and creating an enormous clay model.
The monument was never cast in bronze. Military demands diverted the metal intended for the project, and the model was later destroyed after the French conquest of Milan.
Leonardo’s years at court also produced some of his greatest artistic achievements.
In the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, he painted The Last Supper, capturing the moment when Christ announces that one of his disciples will betray him. Rather than arranging the figures in a conventional, static composition, Leonardo explored the emotional reactions of twelve very different men. Their gestures, expressions and relationships reveal his fascination with human behaviour.
These qualities are equally apparent in the Mona Lisa, begun after his return to Florence. Leonardo used subtle transitions of light and shadow, a technique known as sfumato, to soften contours and create the painting’s famously elusive expression. The landscape behind the sitter seems to recede into a hazy distance, reflecting his interest in how the atmosphere alters our perception of the world.
The Art of Looking Closely
Leonardo’s notebooks reveal the extraordinary range of his investigations, often recording questions and observations alongside drawings of remarkable precision.
Through dissection, he examined muscles, bones, internal organs and the intricate structures that make movement possible. He investigated the heart and its valves, explored the mechanics of breathing and studied how muscles and tendons worked together. His anatomical illustrations combined exceptional artistic skill with close observation, allowing him to represent complex relationships with remarkable clarity.
Elsewhere, he watched water swirl around obstacles, studied the erosion of riverbanks and considered how canals might be constructed or improved. He examined the wings of birds and the forces involved in flight, producing designs for machines intended to carry human beings through the air.
His curiosity sometimes carried him beyond the original purpose of a commission. Paintings could occupy him for years as he explored new ideas, while projects such as The Adoration of the Magi and The Battle of Anghiari remained unfinished. Patrons might have found his working habits frustrating, but Leonardo’s attention was not always easily confined to the task at hand.
He did not publish his investigations, and much of their contents remained unknown to later scholars for centuries. Yet the notebooks preserve something invaluable: the opportunity to follow an extraordinary mind at work.
Leonardo, Borgia and Machiavelli
Leonardo’s career took another turn when French forces conquered Milan in 1499, bringing Ludovico Sforza’s rule to an end.
For the next several years, Leonardo moved between cities and patrons as the political situation across Italy continued to change.
In 1502, he entered the service of Cesare Borgia, the formidable son of Pope Alexander VI. Borgia was attempting to consolidate control over territories in central Italy through a combination of military force, diplomacy and political calculation.
Leonardo accompanied him as a military engineer, surveying towns, examining fortifications and preparing maps. His celebrated map of Imola is a remarkable example of his ability to combine observation, measurement and drawing. Viewed from directly overhead, the town appears with a precision and clarity that made the map useful for military planning.
During this same period, Niccolò Machiavelli was observing Borgia on behalf of the Florentine Republic. Machiavelli was fascinated by the methods Borgia employed to acquire and maintain power. His experiences would later inform The Prince, one of the most influential works of political thought ever written.
Leonardo and Machiavelli moved within the same turbulent political world, although the nature and extent of their personal relationship remain uncertain. Their overlapping careers offer a revealing glimpse of Renaissance Italy. While Machiavelli examined the behaviour of rulers, Leonardo investigated the practical problems those rulers needed solved.
An Enduring Legacy
Leonardo spent his final years in France, where King Francis I welcomed him to the royal court and provided a residence at Clos Lucé, near Amboise. He died there in 1519, aged sixty-seven.
His artistic achievements alone would have secured his place in history. The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa continue to attract admiration more than five centuries after their creation.
But his legacy extends beyond the works he completed. His surviving drawings and investigations offer a rare opportunity to encounter the intellectual world of a man living at the intersection of art, craftsmanship and emerging scientific inquiry.
We have inherited five centuries of accumulated knowledge since Leonardo’s death, supported by instruments and technologies he could scarcely have imagined. Yet there is something wonderfully familiar about his determination to understand the world around him.
The questions that fascinated Leonardo remain part of our own continuing exploration of how things work.
