GOODBYE LEONARDO

If there is one figure who is the most over-rated in history, it is Leonardo da Vinci.

Sure, sure, a nice painter. (Not, mind you, that he got a lot done.) But not, as Jacques Barzun has pointed out, a Renaissance man. He seems to have been completely uninterested in literature, classical or Italian. Michelangelo wrote poetry, very good poetry; Leonardo didn't bother. Michelangelo was fascinated by theological and philosophical questions; Leonardo never noticed them

The only reason we still care about him is because of our interest in a person who is a visual artist and vaguely interested in technology. That flatters our view of this as an age uniquely interested in technology, and baptizes Leonardo as One of Us. Which is, of course, why we most often find historical figures interesting; they seem like us.