PORTRAIT OF A GENIUS
Author Walter Isaacson’s latest subject: True Renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci
Walter I saacson has written books about Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Kissinger and a group of six “wise men” crucial to shaping the policies that defined this country in the wake of World War II.
Now, with the arrival of “Leonardo da Vinci” ( Simon & Schuster, $ 35), a massive yet exceptionally accessible biography of the Italian Renaissance artist, scientist, inventor, engineer, naturalist, anatomist, architect, theatrical designer, map- maker ( and the list goes on), the most obvious question to ask is this: Is Isaacson obsessed with the nature of genius, and, after studying the lives of all these remarkable people, how would he even define that word? That is one of the questions he will address when he speaks ( followed by a book signing) at the American Writers Museum on Dec. 4.
“I came to each of my subjects in different ways,” said Isaacson, 65, currently president and CEO of the Aspen Institute think tank and University Professor of History at Tulane University, whose career also has included stints as CEO of CNN and managing editor of Time magazine.
“With Kissinger it was because we had come to the end of the Vietnam War era. After that I became interested in people whose work combined science, the humanities and diplomacy, which was the case with both Franklin and Einstein. Then Steve Jobs just came to me and said, ‘ Do me next,’ so I did. But it was only as I was writing about him that I began to see the pattern. And of course Leonardo was the ultimate creative genius. He was interested in everything from the way water moved, to the wing structure of birds that enabled them to fly, to the pump system of the human heart. And then he went off and painted such masterpieces as the ‘ Mona Lisa,’ ‘ The Last Supper’ and ‘ Lady with an Ermine.’ ”
As Isaacson explained: “Many of those who have written about Leonardo have focused mainly on the 15 or so paintings for which he is most famous. But what fascinated me were the 7,200 pages of drawings and explanations of various phenomena that filled what we refer to as his notebooks, parts of which now exist in collections in museums in London, Paris, Milan and elsewhere, plus the Codex Leicester, which is full of scientific drawings and is owned by Bill Gates, who will be publishing a facsimile of the work next year.”
“It is the notebooks — the greatest record of curiosity ever created — that suggests the way Leonardo was observing and experimenting with ideas almost every single day — thinking as an artist, a scientist and an engineer, and tying everything together across so many different disciplines. And I was lucky enough to have a good friend who was an expert in reading mirror script, because Leonardo was left- handed and used that method to prevent smudging, although it is often explained as a way to maintain secrecy.”
Born out- of- wedlock — the son of a notary and a peasant woman ( about whom Isaacson uncovered new information), Leonardo was mostly self- educated. His artistic training, however, came from spending years in the apprentice system of the time.
“I don’t attribute Leonardo’s genius to DNA,” said Isaacson. “I believe it came from things I think we all can emulate — a powerful curiosity about everyday things, an intense observation of nature, a blurring of the line between reality and fantasy. For example, I recently took a walk through Central Park and noticed how the light lit up a leaf. And I was in Chicago and saw how the light hit the ripples on the water and made them move in different directions in the wind. Leonardo wrote about these things.”
Among the surprises in the book is Isaacson’s description of how Leonardo’s involvement with the creation of theatrical pageants was key to many of his inventions and painting techniques. “It became the source for his thinking about a prototype for the helicopter and many other mechanical devices, and also informed the type of perspective he used in ‘ The Last Supper.’ ”
Isaacson’s book arrived on shelves just a few weeks before Leonardo’s painting, “Salvator mundi,” (“World savior”) was sold at auction for a record- breaking $ 450 million in November and grabbed front- page headlines. And Paramount has bought the film rights to Isaacson’s book, with Leonardo DiCaprio set to star.