While visiting a traveling museum about Leonardo da Vinci, I learned how diverse this man really was. I had only known about his paintings before seeing his other talents in the museum. Interestingly, my mom had only heard about da Vinci the painter, and my dad had only heard about da Vinci the inventor. We learned, however, that he was even more than just an artist and inventor and embodied the idea of the "Renaissance Man".
The idea of the "Renaissance Man" came about because certain people began investigating many different areas of interest and excelled in them. Da Vinci's areas of expertise included painting, sculpting, architecture, music, mathematics, engineering, inventing, anatomy, geology, cartography, botany, and writing. I've always admired men like da Vinci because of their ability to not only become involved in many different subjects but to contribute in various areas of science and art. His Mona Lisa and The Last Supper are widely recognized as pivotal paintings in art history, but he also invented an automated bobbin winder as well as a machine that tests the tensile strength of wire that contributed to industry.
It seems that these "Renaissance People" do not exist in the same number as before. To even get a job in any area, one has to dedicate himself with years of study and practice. To do so, he has to sacrifice his other interests or put them on the side as "hobbies that I would like to do when I have time" knowing that it probably won't happen. Sadly, this seems to negatively impact our lives and we may not enjoy the feeling of exploration and discovery as much as those of da Vinci's time.
I agree that there aren't as many "Renaissance Men" as there used to be (a possibly negative effect of industrialization and specialization), but I think the point of the Renaissance and me like Da Vinci is that people like that are possible. Before that time period, you couldn't do everything. You were either a farmer or a politician, a writer or a steelworker. You had one thing that you stuck to. But because the people of this period branched out, it became a possibility, and I think it makes our options wider as well.
ReplyDeleteI agree that "life" (or school, or career, or family) requires us to be ONE thing a LOT of the time. But I also have to say along with Jennifer that it's still possible to be a "Renaissance man." After all, don't plenty of college students study hard, join a club, sing in choir, work--and end up succeeding? What's incredible is how they find the time to do it when each interest treats them as though it's their ONLY interest.
ReplyDeleteThese "Renaissance men" seem to be a lot like college students today, we come from the middle or upper class for the most part, we take lots of general education classes, while still preparing for a specific trade, and then we go into a changing working world that requires us to keep learning throughout our lives.
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