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Show • llnlt/erslty Jaumill • MondilY,AII/IIISt s, 1996 • 5 COMMEMORATING THE AUGUST 16, 1996 UNVEILING AT SOUTHERN UTAH UN IVERSITY OF THE STATUE OF LE O NARDO DA VINCI (1452-1519) yourself in youth that your old age is one thing to say of will not lack nourishment." man that he is a "And you, 0 man, who will observe enius. It is quite in these things I have made the nother thing to say of wonderful works of nature, if you im that he is perhaps think it would be a criminal thing to the most versatile genius that ever destroy these, consider how much lived. The reference to Leonardo's ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ more criminalitisto takethe lifeofa versatility includes much more than man. And if this, his external form, seems not, then, too much to claim that Leonardo was his many-sidedness. That was a appears to you marvelously constructed, remember that the most energetic, versatile, and inclusive genius that characteristic quite common in Leonardo's time, an it is nothing as compared with the soul that dwells in humanity has so far produced. identifiable feature of the "Renaissance Man." that structure; for that, indeed, be it what it may, is a But it was not just the praise of posterity that earned Leonardo's genius included his ability to retain his thing divine. Leave it then to dwell in its function at its him fame. He drew an outpouring of admiration from popularity through the centuries, appealing to diverse pleasure, and let not your rage or malice destroy a lifehis contemporaries, much of it directed toward his tastes. for truly, he who does not value life does not himself character and physical attributes, as well as toward his For almost three centuries Leonardo was appreciated deserve it." art. Vasari, in his Lives of the Painters, records that the primarily as an artist. (In fact, among all the artistLeonardo was an illegitimate son of a man who made Duke of Milan, " hearing Leonardo's marvelous st ientists of the Renaissance, Leonardo best deserves his living as a notary and of a peasant woman. She discourses became so ~namored of his qualities that it that title.) His notebooks containing-his remarkable married an artisan in the region of Vinci, near Florence, appeared incredible." Referring to the period of the understanding of mechanics were not widely known in shortly after Leonardo's birth. Leonardo was 24 before artist's youth, he says: "With his reasoning he his lifetime, and some were discovered as recently as conquered and with his arguments he confounded every his father had another child (by his third or fourth wife); 1965. When the first edition of the notebooks appeared and though he grew up in a childless household, he was strong intellect," and adds: "He was so pleasing in in 1881, the world was introduced to a Leonardo it had treated as though he were a legitimate child. Leona rdo conversation that he drew to himself people's very never known- Leonardo the scientist. did not receive a humanistic education, but was given hearts." Vasari's admiration was so great as to include But even without this latest evidence of his genius, the elementary education available to about a third of him among those who " represent not only humanity his reputation was secure. The most distinguished the children in the province. As a result, he got little writers in Europe-Goethe, Wordsworth, Rossetti, but also divinity itself. " instruction in mathematics and in Latin-a deficiency Benevuto Cellini, reflecting on Leonardo's genius Pater, Shelly, Stendhal, Baudelaire-to mention only a of which he was always keenly aware and strove to concerning " the three great arts of sculpture, painting, few in the span of lOO years-poured out their praise in overcome. and architecture," exclaims, " . . . No greater man then poetry and prose; and the features of his art which he, I believe, has been born into the world." Cellini inspired this outpouring of adulation seemed bout 1467, then a boy of 15, he was then quotes the words spoken to him by King Francis I, inexhaustible. apprenticed to the painter and sculptor of France, that he believed "no other man had been The mystery in all this is how so much could be Andrea del Verroch io, in whose born into the world who knew as much as Leonardo-wri tten abo ut a man whose personal life remains workshop he learned the value of not so much speaking of sculpture, painting, and largely hidden fro m public view. Surprisingly enough careful observation and diversified architecture, as saying that he was a very great Leonardo is treated now as often as a scientist as an workmanship; and it was probably here t hat Leonardo philosopher." artist. T hat is partly because his work as a scientist has began to develop the many-sided aspect of his genius. What philosophy Leonardo dispensed was broadly come to light only recently and because the scope of it Vasari described Verrochio as "goldsmith, master of conceived, but not so focused as to fo und a school, as is so breathtaki ng. It literally defies the last word. But perspective, sculptor, painter, musician." In 1472 his painting did. Some of his most impressive then, so, apparently does his paint ing. There has never Leonardo was admitted to the painters' guild of utterances have to do with his precepts for living, and been a time when his wo rks have not been considered Florence after five years of training. He remained with only a few examples are required to show the nature of masterpieces in one country or another. Verrochio for another five yea rs and then opened his his thought. His advice to those who pursue art and Leonardo was an extremely complex character as own workshop in Florence. understanding is sound: "Avoid that study the resultant well. The first to see the universal source of knowledge A review of Leonardo's migratory life would suggest work of which dies with the worker". "It is wrong for in na ture, he explored all fields of human knowledge, that he was a man without a "country." While Italy you to praise and worse to reprehend a thing if you do inserting his superb intellect into every realm where was, in Leonardo's time, a collection of city-states and not understand it well". "The acquisition of any graphic representation is employed- painting, remained so until the 19th century, he claimed no knowledge is always of use to the intellect, because it sculpture, architecture, and engineering. Not only did allegiance to any city, and moved freely between them. may drive out useless things and preserve the good. For he master the art of drawing, but he possessed an Born in Florence in 1452, Leonardo spent the first 30 nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first exceptional grasp of anatomy, astronomy, botany, years of his life there before finding work in Milan. zoology, hydro-dynamics and music. And any attempt understood." From 1482 to 1499, he worked on various projects in But it is in the field of ethics that Leonardo most to capture his genius must include his forays into Milan-including painting, sculpture, and strongly reveals the nobility of his character: physiology, optics, geology, geography, meteorology, architecture-but never completed many of these. In "Knowledge acquired in one's youth arrests the aeronautics, physics, phonetics, linguistics, and damage of old age, and if you understand that old age mathemat ics. He drew up plans for hundreds of (continued on page?) has wisdom for its sustenance, you will so condu ct inventions, including an airplane .and a parachutt, It Jmaw&~~ Yea:u& <£~ <ffJoef' I |