Leonardo Now

Leonardo


The name of Leonardo Da Vinci is on everyone’s lips these days. And it makes me wonder how deep and how wide his thinking must have been to continue to impact our world today, 500 years after the Renaissance.

Notwithstanding the success of Dan Brown’s book, Leonardo has influenced every major field, from artistic production to aviation, to education to business consultancy (see Michael Gelb’s How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci), and now, entertainment and popular culture.

The enigmatic Leonardo could draw like an angel. More so, he could paint like an angel from the highest choir of heaven. His mirror-written notebooks spanned the breadth of his intellectual interest, from anatomy to botany to military strategy to art, architecture, aerodynamics and mysticism. (Bill Gates bought one page for millions of dollars.) Leonardo was constantly experimenting, and had only a handful of completed works. Yet, in all of artistic history, these are some of the most priceless. It is the man and the mind behind the works that are right now in the public eye.

Leonardo was born at a time when Italy, as we now know it, did not exist. Venice, Rome, Florence, and Naples fought for supremacy and survival, with each state led by a family of nobles who controlled and protected politicians, armies, cardinals, artists and thinkers. Added to this was the real and constant threat of an invasion from Spain and France. Most artists of his time survived (and flourished) under the care of a patron. At one time, one of Leonardo’s patrons were the Borgias (the ruling family of Pope Alexander), most notably Cesare Borgia (commander of the Pope’s army) who used one of Leonardo’s military inventions (a war tower) in battle.

It was a chaotic and creative time, when man took his destiny in his own hands, and the renaissance poets, artists and thinkers drew inspiration from the civilization of Ancient Greece, most notably from the works of Plato. Here began the concept of the artistic genius, born with the gift and curse of divine creation, and exemplified in the triumvirate of Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo.


Now

500 years later, are we in a similar Renaissance? Certainly, if the specials over at National Geographic are any indication, we are witnessing an explosion of religious information. 2000 year-old documents are resurfacing to challenge our long and deeply-held beliefs. It’s not much different I think, from finding out that the world isn’t flat, and that the planets do not revolve around the earth. (Hard to imagine that this was what we thought 500 years ago.)

In five years, any new information and technology we currently have will be obsolete. As a species, we are constantly evolving, discarding old patterns and ways for new ones. Here and now, this is happening, a process that began when early man devised new tools for himself to help him hunt more effectively. Consequently, he also found the time to think and reflect and become better. He has been at it ever since.

In Leonardo’s paintings, particularly those about John the Baptist, there is an image of a man pointing upward towards the sky. The popular image of John the Baptist is that of harbinger, messenger. It is eerily similar to the Buddhist koan of “pointing one’s finger toward the moon.” The finger merely points towards essence, towards truth. The Buddha reminded us to look beyond the finger, to look beyond the message and experience the truth of the moon.

Since the beginning of Christianity, we have been looking through the lens of religion. Now, we have the opportunity to experience the Spirit firsthand, without intermediary. Technology, history and new discoveries have all led us to this point.

Are we ready?



© Jojo Ballo 2006