Adam Gopnik's "Renaissance Man"

A mystery will always shroud Leonardo Da Vinci. He was a mystery while he was alive, and he continues to be today. No one really knows the real Leonardo Da Vinci. We get glimpses of his mind through his notebooks and paintings. But again, those only offer glimpses; they will never give us the whole story. But, somehow, these glimpses have made Leonardo a famous man. Today, whenever anyone mentions Leonardo’s name, whatever is associated with it becomes fact. I believe this is Adam Gopnik’s point in his article, “Renaissance Man”.

Adam Gopnik talks about the three major academic writers of Leonardo: Martin Kemp, Charles Nicholl, and Kenneth Clark. Each of these writers has a different angle that they write from. Kemp tries to define Leonardo by his mind and not by his actions. He then tries to explain why Leonardo did some of the things he did. Charles Nicholl’s book is more of the traditional biography. He details Leonardo’s life, his commissions, his patrons – basically Nicholl recounted the history of Leonardo, but not necessarily the true mystery; Leonardo’s mind. Kenneth Clark, whom is considered one of the best writers of Leonardo, wrote about Leonardo’s “renegotiating the line ‘between science and symbolism.’” But all these writers, instead of clarifying the life and work of Leonardo Da Vinci, helped the mystery continue.

Before I discuss the impact of Dan Brown’s book The Da Vinci Code, I want to admit that I read the book. Almost every time I drive from Bozeman to Seattle and back again, I listen to the book on tape. When I first read the book, I was in middle school; I didn’t understand the difference between fact and fiction, especially when it was interwoven so skillfully. Today, I enjoy it as a good story, nothing more. Ok, confession time is over…

While Gopnik only writes on Dan Brown’s book for two short paragraphs, this book has helped fuel the flames of the mysterious Leonardo. While the book is considered a blatant lie by the academic world, to the general population, Brown’s book is considered fact or at least a plausible reality for Leonardo’s life. Whether you take the book as fact or fiction, almost everyone agrees that this book moved Leonardo from a mysterious man of the Renaissance to a completely new level of mystery, that I don’t know if anyone can define.

Adam Gopnik concludes his article with the idea that no one knows the real Leonardo and it is highly unlikely we will ever know. However, maybe the real Leonardo is the Leonardo that we have all built in our minds; the one who designed tanks and submarines and painted beautifully. Maybe the real Leonardo is the mystery.