Leonardo Da Vinci’s Thoughts on Art and Life

Been working my way through Leonardo Da Vinci’s Thoughts on Art and Life, (Einstein translation) while in Italy. Leonardo compares painting to other disciplines, and as might be expected, painting wins out in all contests. He spends several chapters comparing painting to poetry by which he means all written discourse, summarizing the difference between painting and poetry with the succinct phrase, “Painting is mute poetry, and poetry is blind painting.” Since, as he previously pointed out, eyesight is superior to hearing, painting wins out. I found it interesting that he devotes a single paragraph to philosophy:

“Painting includes in its range the surface, colour and shape of anything created by nature; and philosophy penetrates into the same bodies and takes note of their essential virtue, but it is not satisfied with that truth, as is the painter, who seizes hold of the primary truth of such bodies because the eye is less prone to deception.” 

This brief analysis is interesting because it notes the hallmark of all philosophy, that “it is not satisfied” with surface or simple explanations. Then, it goes on to identify sight, once again, as the “primary truth.” We might summarize Leonardo’s own philosophy as “a picture is worth a thousand words.” 

Yet, when he writes about painting itself (ignoring the irony that he has to use the enemies’ techniques to clarify what painting really means) he digs a little deeper into his ideas, himself less than satisfied with the surface. Writing about how to paint, he insists that representing the surface of the human figure isn’t enough, one must represent something more: “No figure will be admirable if the gesture which expresses the passion of the soul is not visible in it. The most admirable figure is that which best expresses the passion of its mind.” Perhaps this passage explains why we find the Mona Lisa’s smile so intriguing; it expresses the passion of her mind.