Discovering da Vinci

Happy Wednesday! Can you believe we are already halfway through September? What a fun week we have had delving into da Vinci. This year as we endeavor to embrace the theme of Less. But Better, Leonardo da Vinci can pose a bit of a challenge. What would the true essentialists say about being a “Renaissance Man”?

Track A mom, Molly Trapp, shares with us her thoughts and insights on this idea, as well as pictures and fun Leonardo facts from her family’s recent visit to the da Vinci exhibit at the Reagan Museum.  Join the conversation; share your thoughts in the comments.

We are one of those families who is blessed to have local grandparents. Not only do we have local grandparents, but we have local grandparents that love SLOCA and embrace the concept of fostering wisdom. It is in that light that my parents took us to the Ronald Reagan Museum in Simi Valley right before school started to experience The World of da Vinci.

Leonardo was born out of wedlock which at that time meant he wasn’t allowed to go to traditional schooling, causing him to take the non-traditional route (sound familiar?) where he used nature as his muse and spent a lot of time in wonder at an early age. Eventually, he became an apprentice under Verrocchio, which kicked off his career as an artist, but those younger years established a love of learning and curiosity in him that could not be turned off. 

Random Leo Fact: He was left-handed, and in order to prevent his handwriting from smearing, he wrote backwards, from right to left! Most of his writings are in mirror-image cursive. Try it – I dare you.

Many of us know of a number of Leonardo’s incredible art pieces that have gifted us with beauty and awe, and changed the way art was approached during the Renaissance; pieces like The Last Supper and Mona Lisa. Any one of us would be excited to have accomplished just one of those pieces, and it would have taken us a lifetime to make such perfection (or maybe I’m just projecting my art skills onto you right now). 

But Leonardo didn’t just stop at painting. 

I’ve grappled with how to write this post in light of this year’s “Less, but Better” motto because da Vinci wasn’t much of a “less” guy. He was a true Renaissance man; one who invented, sculpted, painted and created in ways that were hundreds of years ahead of his time. The drawings found in his Codex Atlanticus (a 12-volume, bound set of his drawings and writings) cover science, mechanics, engineering, architecture, mathematics, musical instruments, geometry, astronomy, botany, zoology, anatomy, military, and physics.

The pages are filled with more words and concepts than most people would ever be able to comprehend. When looking at his work, you get the feeling that his motto was “More, and Better.” And yet, very few of his inventive ideas were actually attempted, perhaps because his mind was so overwhelmed with ideas that he never allowed himself time to slow down and experience “less,” giving himself time to work out an idea to completion. But also because he was just so ahead of his time that many of his ideas weren’t actually feasible, given that the science and technology behind metals and engineering were only in their infancy. 

While it was Leonardo’s intention to publish his 40 years of artistic and scientific research, he didn’t publish a single treatise (for reasons unknown) and his scientific work wasn’t rediscovered until the late 19th century. The objects on display at the museum were courtesy of an organization called Leonardo 3, whose researchers assembled models for the very first time of his work based on his drawings. Walking through the museum, it is incredible to think of all those ideas stored up in his head and on those pages, only to be discovered and used hundreds of years later.

Our family wondered, perhaps if he had honed his focus in on fewer things, the “less,” we wouldn’t even know the Wright Brothers and we would have been flying hundreds of years earlier. We wouldn’t have to deal with all that parking lot traffic – our kids would just fly to school!

Then again, many of his creative ideas were in the area of the military and involved concepts like ships shaped like scorpions, slings that could forcefully hurl eight large stones in any direction, rapidly reloading crossbows, and battleships with hidden underwater ramming mechanisms or giant scythes atop. Had he chosen to hone his focus in on such endeavors, war techniques could have advanced the world’s military in ways that could have been extremely devastating for the world. 

One thing is for certain, Leonardo da Vinci is one of the greatest minds of all time and his acts of wonder have stimulated countless concepts and creations for hundreds of years. 

I’m not quite sure how to tie in “Less, but Better” with Leonardo. I think he’s in a class of his own and I’m not the person to suggest he should have done things differently. But I think we can be inspired by his childhood when he took the time to slow down and observe all that was around him. In Diane Stanley’s book Leonardo da Vinci, she points out that as an adult he had constant opportunity to be with people, yet da Vinci lived a solitary life. He once wrote, “If you are alone, you belong entirely to yourself… If you are accompanied by even one companion you belong only half to yourself, or even less.” It was likely in his solitude that his heart had the chance to see what was truly important and his mind was able to explore and wonder. Had he not taken the time to truly know what was essential to him, who knows where the world would be?

By the way, did you know that SLOCA has a group whose primary purpose is to connect SLOCA grandparents with what’s going on at SLOCA? The Grandparent’s Auxiliary wants to strengthen bridges between the generations and give grandparents the opportunity to be present in their grandkids’ school lives. The group makes sure grandparents are in the know on what’s going on at SLOCA so they can hear things they may not hear right away from their kids, like how to be at Grand Day (more on that coming soon), be amazed at History Night, be in the front row at recitations and performances, hear news from the Board, and get insight into where the school is headed. Most of the grandparents in our community would love to be better in tune with what’s going on in their grandkids’ lives, so do them a favor–Get them on the Grandparent’s Auxiliary so they can be connected and better understand what SLOCA’s all about. Email: [email protected] for more info.