Caregivers can probably learn more from studying the work of one particular being than they can from any other. This person created the anatomy drawing, known as Vitruvian Man, 532 years ago. The image has become so iconic it is known by every physician & most nurses. 

   Were it the only piece Leonardo Da Vinci ever made, the artist would still be famous. But this sketch, (likely modeled on the artist) is a tiny fraction of the work created by a person described by biographer Walter Isaacson as "The most creative genius in history."  

    What about Mozart, Einstein, Steve Jobs? They were geniuses in particular fields. Leonardo Da Vinci not only wanted to master everything. He accomplished that so well that he became the penultimate example of the Renaissance person. 

   In 1568 Giorgio Vasari wrote of Leonardo, "…occasionally, in a way that transcends nature, a single person is marvellously [sic] endowed by Heaven with beauty, grace and talent in such abundance that he leaves other men far behind."

   "He was the ultimate example of someone who connected art and science and spirit," Isaacson says."

   What stands out was the stunning range of his intellect. We know that the sky is blue because of the way air scatters light. Leonardo was the first to explain this. He was so renown for his designs of helicopters, war machines & portable bridges that he added at the end of one work application, almost as an afterthought, "I can also paint."

   Nothing seemed too minor to escape his voracious curiosity. The painter of The Mona Lisa & The Last Supper wondered about the function of a woodpecker's tongue.

   One of Da Vinci's greatest lessons is how his science informed his art & vice versa. We think of these disciplines as separate. Leonardo saw what all of us should – that they are of a piece.

  Leonardo Da Vinci was a classic polymath, a person who is known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. It is hard to plumb the depths of this giant's genius. 

   Imagine what we might learn about the nature of life & of our own genius if we tried?

-Erie Chapman