Leonardo Da Vinci (By Kristopher Eshenaur)

1. Why is this person important?

Leonardo Da Vinci is important because besides painting some of the most well-known paintings ever, The Last Supper and The Mona Lisa, he also made designs for an early airplane and musical instruments, hydraulic pumps, and a steam cannon, among other things. When people think of the Renaissance Era the first person to pop in their head is Leonardo Da Vinci, mainly because he basically was the Renaissance.

2. Why did you choose this person? How does his/her life relate to you?

I chose Leonardo Da Vinci because I was always a big fan of his. Analyzing his artwork in my Humanities, and Art, classes were always one of my favorite moments during them. I always enjoyed the mystery of who exactly was the person in The Mona Lisa and are there hidden meanings in The Last Supper? Our lives don’t really relate. I enjoy his work and enjoy the retelling of his life, though sometimes fictional, in the TV show Da Vinci’s Demons.

3. If she/he had never existed, would the world be different from how we know it now? Why?

I think that the whole world would be different. We wouldn’t have ever had his artwork or any of his 13,000 pages of notes and designs. There would have never been any Da Vinci Code madness, which maybe we could have done without, but still it never would have happened. Also if he never existed the Renaissance may not have been as big as it was.

4. If you could meet this person, what would you ask her/him?

I would probably ask him about his inspiration for The Mona Lisa and The Vitruvian Man. I would also like to know how he ever came up with enough ideas to fill 13,000 pages. I would also like to know if he put any hidden meanings into The Last Super and who exactly is the woman in The Mona Lisa. Besides asking him questions I would also like to tell him a few things, mainly about how much he impacted the world.

5. Do you think the fact this person was Italian played a role in his/her achievement? 

I do think that him being Italian played a role in his achievement, and life, mainly because the Renaissance at the time was mostly centered in Italy, it did start there. He was influenced by that era and if he wasn’t born in Italy then he may have gotten into the Renaissance too late in his life for it to ever have a major impact on his ideas and art.