Although Da Vinci only received a basic education for a young person according to 15th century standards, he was exposed to various opportunities that allowed him to explore his consuming curiosity in specifically the subjects of painting (of course), drawing, sculpture, architecture, engineering, nature, anatomy of humans and other animals, and even physics.
Da Vinci did not choose to focus on only art or only science. He believed that sight was the most important sense humans had, and perhaps this was one reason why he was able to view the two fields of art and science as complimentary to one another. Without his artistic skills and abilities, Da Vinci might not have been able to fully articulate all the ideas he had in his mind about how one might build a flying machine based on the biology and flight mechanics of bats. And his knowledge of sculpture and human anatomy may have influenced how he painted the "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper."
To record all his interests and ideas, Da Vinci filled thousands of pages with drawings and accompanying notes. If he lived during our time, he may have decided to publish his scientific observations in a peer reviewed journal, or apply for patents for his inventions and ideas. Unfortunately, the 15th century did not have the same sort of knowledge-sharing processes we have available today, and much of the world would not truly understand his genius until much later. There is the chance, however, that Da Vinci might have hesitated to share some of his ideas, as he wrote some of his notes in "mirror-script" to make them not so easy to understand at first glance.
Ultimately, yes, Da Vinci most definitely had other interests and skills other than in the field of painting. His determination to somehow follow his interests in both art and science could very well be an inspiration to people today who are trying to choose between art or science as a career choice. Maybe, like Da Vinci, they can find a way to do both.
Further Reading:
https://www.history.com/topics/leonardo-da-vinci
He was known for painting, but his interests and achievements spread into many other fields. Leonardo studied sculpture, anatomy, astronomy, geology, geometry and optics. He was very interested in mathematics and was trained by Fra Luca Pacioli, the famous mathematician. He was also very interested in engineering projects. The writings and sketches he left behind show his visionary ideas focused on geometry, flying machines, mechanics and hydraulics. He was one of the first to use the analogy between water and air to study aerodynamics, he inspired any sort of flying machine. He left behind thousands of words and hundreds of sketches on the nature of air and bird flight. Birds, Leonardo wrote, are flying machines. He was also interested in music and he learned to play the stringed instruments as a child. One of his sketches reveals an instrument that looks like it's part cello and horsehair is used for the strings. Lorenzo de Medici commissioned Leonardo to create a silver lyre. The musical instrument was presented at the court of Ludovico Sforza in Milan. Shaped like a horse's head, the lyre was played by da Vinci to an audience.
Leonardo Da Vinci has been a hero of mine since high school, so this is a very exciting one for me to answer. While most people know Da Vinci for his paintings, he actually did not do that many. As an artist, he had many ways of expressing himself and was also considered a sculptor, architect, and draftsman (a draftsman is similar to an architect but does detailed technical drawings of machines and infrastructure). In fact, when Da Vinci was lobbying his de'Medici patron for a job, he sold himself not as an artist but as a military engineer. He completed several projects in this vein—including drafting the plans for the diversion of the Arno River to deny Florence's enemy, Pisa, access to the sea.
Da Vinci was also a scientist. Like most Renaissance artists, he saw art and science as intertwined, and so to become a better artist, he studied the science of anatomy. Da Vinci dissected both animals and human cadavers, and some of his drawings were some of the earliest, accurate depictions we have of the human body. He also independently studied botany, zoology, geology, hydraulics, aeronautics, and physics. History, theology, and politics did not interest him—most of the science he studied seemed to be more about how things moved and interacted with each other rather than what they were.
https://www.biography.com/artist/leonardo-da-vinci
https://www.notablebiographies.com/Ki-Lo/Leonardo-da-Vinci.html
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