Sublime

Leonardo’s devotion to firsthand experience went deeper than just being prickly about his lack of received wisdom. It also caused him, at least early on, to minimize the role of theory. A natural observer and experimenter, he was neither wired nor trained to wrestle with abstract concepts. He preferred to induce from experiments rather than deduce

The primary focus of the Codex Leicester is the topic that Leonardo regarded as the most fundamental force in the life of the planet and in our bodies: the role and movements of fluids and, in particular, water.

Leonardo’s relationships with his half-brothers had improved since the resolution of the family’s inheritance disputes, and when he got to Rome he sought out his father’s oldest legitimate son, Giuliano da Vinci, who, not surprisingly, was a notary. Giuliano had been promised a benefice—a Church appointment that came with a stipend—but there had be

With the Baptism of Christ, Verrocchio went from being Leonardo’s teacher to being his collaborator. He had helped Leonardo learn the sculptural elements of painting, especially modeling, and also the way a body twists in motion. But Leonardo, with thin layers of oil both translucent and transcendent, and his ability to observe and imagine, was now