The apprentice of genius, the apprentice of experience Leonardo.

 The apprentice of genius, the apprentice of experience Leonardo.

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Leonardo lived in Vinci until he was twelve. Although his family life was complicated, he had a pretty peaceful life at Vinci.

But in 1464 a rift broke out in this world. Piero brought his son to Florence.

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Leonardo left no tales of emigration, but the allegory of the stone's tragic journey gives us a glimpse of his feelings.

The stones were surrounded by colorful flowers and numerous trees. In other words, it was a place like Vinci. He looked down at the many stones on the road down the hill and decided that he would go there too. He asked himself which stone he had.

"What am I doing among these plants?"

"I want to live with stones like me."

So he rolled the stone down to where the other stones were.

After some time passed, Leonardo wrote:

He found himself constantly tormented by stones, he wheels, steel horseshoes, and the feet of passersby. He was kicked by some and trampled by others. The stone occasionally raised his body slightly covered with mud or animal dung, but in vain he looked up at the place of solitude and quiet peace from which he had left.

Leonardo offers a lesson here.

"This is what happens to those who choose to forsake a life of contemplation alone, move to the city, and live amongst humans who are riddled with infinite evil."

"As long as you are alone, you can be completely master of yourself."

This kind of praise for rural life can be very attractive to those who like romantic and lonely genius images. But there's too much fantasy melted into it.

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Leonardo was active mainly in Florence, Milan and Rome, where he was always surrounded by his students, colleagues and patrons. It was extremely rare for him to go out to his countryside to spend long hours alone. Like many artists, he was stimulated when his interests were surrounded by a diverse group of people, and he overturned his own words and wrote in his notebooks:

"Drawing with other people is much better than drawing alone."

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- Florence

Florentine thinkers actively embraced Renaissance humanism, trusting in the dignity of the individual and finding happiness in the world through knowledge. A third of Florence's population could read, which was the highest literacy rate in Europe. By embracing trade, Florence became a financial center and a melting pot of ideas.

Florence Cathedral is the most beautiful in Italy. It was a success in both art and technology, and the good connection between these two fields was the secret of Florence's creativity. Many of Florence's artists were also architects, and its textile industry emerged by combining technology, design, chemistry and commerce.

It was common for people with various talents to mix and fuse ideas from different fields.

An atmosphere that encourages creativity, the ability to fuse ideas from disparate fields, is added like a spice to the festival culture of Florence. People went to the plaza when they had a break to have a heated discussion.

The culture of the time provided rewards to those who studied and grafted different fields in depth.

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- Brunelleschi and Alberti

Filippo Brunelleschi designed the dome of the Florence Cathedral.

He developed sophisticated mathematical modeling techniques and invented a series of hoists and engineering tools to erect the domes of the Florence Cathedral. He also rediscovered and greatly developed the classical concept of visual perspective. He used to conduct experiments as if he had foreseen Leonardo's achievements. The linear perspective that he exiled not only turned the art world upside down, but also influenced the application of optics, architecture, and Euclidean geometry.

Brunelleschi was succeeded by Leon Battista Almerti as a theorist of linear perspective. He refined several of Brunelleschi's experiments and expanded his optics research. Alberti, an artist, architect, engineer and writer, resembled Leonardo in many ways.

Alberti has a technician's instinct to prefer collaboration. He was a lover of friendship and he had an open mind.

He strongly supported 'discourse in the public sphere'. He shared his findings with his devotion, gathered his intellectual comrades to conduct further research based on each other's findings, and encouraged public debate and publications to promote his knowledge accumulation. (Relatively, Leonardo did not have a strong desire to expand human knowledge by publishing and disseminating his findings as a book.)

Alberti, 'the embodiment of elegance in every word and deed'.

Leonardo studied Alberti's thesis and consciously imitated his writing and attitude.