Leonardo da Vinci

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how in Western cultural mythology Leonardo da Vinci has risen to almost superhero prominence. It looks at how he holds a powerful place in the history of Western civilization because of the sheer range of his genius and not simply as an artist a scientist or an engineer.

From the Paper:

"In Western cultural mythology, Leonardo da Vinci has risen to almost superhero prominence. His historical genius is rivaled only, perhaps, by Albert Einstein. Even then, however, Leonardo holds a powerful place in the history of Western civilization because of the sheer range of his genius. He was not simply an artist, a scientist, or an engineer. Rather, many scholars have characterized Leonardo as the "paragon artist-scientist-engineer" (Atalay, 2004: xvii). Indeed, Leonardo's life and accomplishments therein lend much credibility to this characterization of Leonardo as the ultimate Renaissance man. We should not forget, however, that Leonardo was also a man born in a time of incredible cultural change in the history of Western civilization. Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 and lived throughout Italy and France before dying in 1519, a kept man of the king of France. "

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