Why Leonardo da Vinci was a Scientist, not an Artist

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Published 2021-07-22
Unmasking the unknown side of the Renaissance genius. Sign up for FREE at brilliant.org/newsthink/ to brush up on your calculus, programming, and computer science skills. The first 200 people to sign up get 20% off the annual Premium subscription.

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Sources:
0:38 Roland Arhelger, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
4:36 selbst fotografiert, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en via Wikimedia Commons
6:32 Coyau / Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0
6:48 Nadègevillain, CC BY-SA 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
6:57 Château du Clos Lucé / Léonard de Serres, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

All Comments (21)
  • @Newsthink
    Sign up for FREE at brilliant.org/newsthink/ to brush up on your calculus, programming, and computer science skills. The first 200 people to sign up get 20% off the annual Premium subscription.
  • If people 500 years later can't decide if you're the best artist or best engineer or best scientist in history, you've led a good life.
  • @speedysquibbles
    Guy is just a total badass, he studied biology, physics, chemistry, and mathematics just to create the perfect painting. On top of that he is an excellent engineer and architect. What more could you ask for?
  • Also, the mysterious smile isn’t just mysterious because of his knowledge of anatomy. He understood how our eye readjusts the values of a scene depending on where you look, e.g. your periphery is blurry. So he basically played with that concept and created a smile that disappears and reappears.
  • @RandobotTV
    I cant imagine what it'd be like to be hundreds of years ahead your time at THIS moment in history. What kinds of ideas would you need to think of to be that advanced with our current knowledge?
  • @guslevy3506
    The greatest irony in Painting is that the two arguably greatest technically gifted painters - Leonardo and Michelangelo - actually disliked painting and viewed it as a laborious vocation. Leonardo preferred scientific pursuits while Michelangelo preferred sculpting… Also, Leonardo likely never published his scientific work because it likely would have had him excommunicated and branded a heretic by the Catholic Church…which could have had him executed. He studied the cadavers in secret in the middle of the night.
  • @shohan282
    Vinci was the kid every asian parents want Edit: wow! tnx for all the like..✌️
  • @philiphoting
    Science is just a process, art is the outcome. DaVinci was so thorough about science and used the scientific thinking to create art pieces.
  • @dread69420
    Artist, Scientist, Engineer all in one. Leonardo of Vinci was truly remarkable.
  • @jamestnov41945
    Thank you Cindy. Da Vinci was light years ahead of everyone.
  • @Munamati-g7b
    Before watching the whole video, I already know this will be a good one!
  • @Nedwin
    He was the true genius. My exploration about him was up after I saw Davinci Code movie. He was a scientist, doctor, artist, writer, and a philosopher at the same time. Imagine he lives in today's era, many works of his will be used for humanity.
  • @meganblythe4273
    Davinci's works were so formidable because of his artistic training. There really wasn't a difference between Artist and Scientist during periods like the Renaissance because all of the greatest engineers and thinkers were also some of the greatest artists. That's why STEM is such a weak curriculum because it cuts out the heart of what made the Renaissance thinkers so ingenuitive. STEAM curriculum (Science, Tech, Engineering, Fine Arts, and Math) is a much more fully and accurate concept and curriculum set up as colleges are seeing a nearly 30% dropout rate in STEM related majors because those students never had a fully developed education. The fact that so many people don't understand this is frustrating because it continues to devalue art in society when artists used to be more powerful than royalty.
  • @prabijshrestha
    He was an artist , engineer , doctor , scientist , mathematician ... He must have been Jonny Sin of his time .
  • @FirstOfTheMagi
    Leonardo may be one of the most diversely gifted geniuses in history
  • @King-zc5gp
    When I think of Leonardo da Vinci I think of the assassins creed missions man those were some good days
  • @Mike__B
    Not going to lie, was totally expecting a comparison between Elon Musk and DaVinci ... and ever so happy when it didn't happen.
  • @louisloseau9049
    I beg to differ, he was a polymath, which means he had many different areas of discipline, it is possible to be both you know
  • @supreme.__.
    the reason i respect him so so much is because when i was in middle school i read a book about him and it said Leonardo was handsome, muscular, good voice, inventor and an artist and much more more. imagine someone being so perfect in every way possible