Sublime

Leonardo’s greatest achievement in his heart studies, and indeed in all of his anatomical work, was his discovery of the way the aortic valve works, a triumph that was confirmed only in modern times. It was birthed by his understanding, indeed love, of spiral flows. For his entire career, Leonardo was fascinated by the swirls of water eddies, wind

While he was in Imola with Machiavelli and Borgia, Leonardo made what may be his greatest contribution to the art of war. It is a map of Imola, but not any ordinary map (fig. 87).18 It is a work of beauty, innovative style, and military utility. It combines, in his inimitable manner, art and science.

“The originality of the skull drawings of 1489 is so fundamentally different and superior to all other extant illustrations of the time that they are completely out of character with the age,” according to Francis Wells, a surgeon and an expert on the anatomical drawings.8 To the left of the face Leonardo drew each of the four types of human teeth,

Il va dans les années suivantes créer deux des plus célèbres tableaux de l’Histoire : La Cène et La Joconde. Pourtant, il se considère autant comme un artiste que comme un scientifique et un ingénieur.

Leonardo’s first nonreligious painting is the portrait of a melancholy young woman with a moonlike face glowing against the backdrop of a spiky juniper tree (fig. 14). Although somewhat listless and unengaging on first glance, Ginevra de’ Benci has wonderful Leonardo touches, such as the lustrous, tightly curled ringlets of hair and unconventional

Creative endeavors had been divided since antiquity into two categories: the mechanical arts and the more exalted liberal arts. Painting had been classified as mechanical because it was a craft based on handiwork, like that of goldsmiths and tapestry weavers. Leonardo refuted this by arguing that painting is not only an art but also a science. In o

And now, the Mona Lisa (fig. 134). The discussion of Leonardo’s pièce de résistance could have come earlier in this book. He began working on it in 1503, when he returned to Florence after serving Cesare Borgia. But he had not finished it when he moved back to Milan in 1506. In fact, he carried it with him, and continued to work on it, throughout h