Would the four of them seated at a dinner table feed off of each other’s revolutionary thoughts? Or would they be competing with one another? What would a dinner among them be like? Who do you think would pick up the tab at the end of the meal? For him, they were both ways to appreciate and describe the beauty of nature.ĪD: You have written biographies on Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, and Leonardo da Vinci, which is to say you know these men better than almost anyone else ever will. In fact, I don’t think he made much of a distinction between art and science. The dissection of lips at the same time he was painting the Mona Lisa is an example. WI: What surprised me most was how closely his science was connected to his art. When he died on May 2, 1519, in Amboise, France, that very painting was in his bedroom, with him to the very end. Today, it's one of the most famous paintings in history. He adored his painting, the Mona Lisa ( La Gioconda), a work that took him 16 years to complete. In so many ways Leonardo was unlike anyone before him, yet he had very human impulses and desires.

What Isaacson offers us is a peek into the life of a man who cared more about knowledge for its own sake than the fame that would come later. Which is why so many rushed to read the most recent biography about Leonardo, courtesy of master biographer Walter Isaacson, who has previously written about other luminaries: Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Steve Jobs (who handpicked Isaacson to write his biography). Every year there seems to be a new revelation about his life as biographers have pursued the clues Leonardo left us: He was a vegetarian, ambidextrous, bisexual, unfazed by deadlines, etcetera. Society's fascination with Leonardo seems to have grown with each passing generation.

Da vinci by walter isaacson