Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson is a 2017 biography that examines the life, mind, and legacy of one of history’s most celebrated polymaths. Isaacson—an acclaimed biographer and former editor of Time magazine—brings a blend of journalistic storytelling and scholarly research to his portrayal of Leonardo. Known for his best-selling works on figures like Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, and Benjamin Franklin, Isaacson turns his attention here to the archetype of Renaissance genius, emphasizing the human dimensions of Leonardo’s creativity: his insatiable curiosity, perfectionism, and interdisciplinary vision. The biography blends elements of intellectual history, art criticism, and popular science writing, touching on themes such as The Integration of Art and Science as a Path to Truth, Curiosity as a Discipline and a Way of Life, and The Tension Between Vision and Completion. Isaacson draws heavily from Leonardo’s thousands of surviving notebook pages, framing them as windows into a mind constantly in motion.

This study guide references the 2017 Simon & Schuster Kindle edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of antigay bias.

Summary

Walter Isaacson’s Leonardo da Vinci follows the arc of Leonardo’s life while also offering deep dives into his artistic, scientific, and philosophical pursuits. The biography begins not with Leonardo’s accomplishments, but with his character—especially his lifelong curiosity, expressed in quirky, detailed to-do lists like “describe the tongue of the woodpecker” (23). Isaacson establishes this curiosity as Leonardo’s defining trait, more crucial than any singular talent, and uses it to reframe the myth of the “solitary genius.”

Leonardo was born in 1452 in the Tuscan village of Vinci, the illegitimate son of a notary and a peasant woman. Because of his illegitimacy, he was excluded from formal academic training in Latin and classical texts. Isaacson presents this lack not as a handicap but as a liberation—it allowed Leonardo to build a self-directed education based on firsthand observation. His early apprenticeship in the studio of Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence exposed him to painting, sculpture, and engineering. Here, Leonardo learned the fundamentals of anatomy, optics, and perspective that shaped his mature work.

As a young artist, Leonardo struggled with completing commissions, often abandoning projects in pursuit of perfection or shifting curiosity. In 1482, he moved to Milan, where he spent nearly two decades in the service of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan. There, Leonardo flourished as a painter, engineer, set designer, and inventor. Isaacson intersperses the biography with detailed accounts of Leonardo’s major artistic works, including The Last Supper and Virgin of the Rocks, as well as unrealized projects like a massive equestrian statue and designs for ideal cities. Leonardo’s interest in anatomy intensified during this period, and he began dissecting human corpses—producing some of the most accurate anatomical drawings in history.

The biography traces Leonardo’s friendships and partnerships, including his complex relationship with the mischievous Salai, his longtime companion. Isaacson also discusses Leonardo’s ambiguous sexuality, noting that he was arrested for sodomy as a young man (though the charges were dropped). These personal details humanize Leonardo while also underscoring his outsider status, which may have fueled his empathy and unconventional thinking.

Leonardo’s notebooks form a central thread in the narrative. Isaacson draws from over 7,200 surviving pages to illustrate how Leonardo thought—through drawing, drafting, questioning, and re-questioning. These pages contain everything from anatomical sketches to jokes, to-do lists, mechanical diagrams, and artistic treatises. Isaacson argues that the notebooks are as significant as his finished paintings, embodying a worldview where observation and imagination constantly intertwine.

After Milan falls to the French in 1499, Leonardo spent years moving between Florence, Venice, and Rome. He painted the Mona Lisa during this time—a work Isaacson treats as the pinnacle of Leonardo’s synthesis of art and science. Leonardo studied facial musculature, light scattering, and emotional expression to create a portrait that seems to respond to the viewer’s gaze. The Mona Lisa, never delivered to its patron, remained with Leonardo until his death.

Despite his fame, Leonardo’s later years were marked by growing restlessness and unfinished projects. He worked briefly for the ruthless Cesare Borgia as a military engineer, drawing maps and designing fortifications. He returned to anatomy with renewed intensity, dissecting corpses in hospitals and expanding his understanding of the human body. Yet he never published his treatise on anatomy or his planned book on painting. In the final phase of his life, he entered the service of King Francis I of France, where he spent his remaining years in relative comfort, still tinkering with ideas and diagrams.

Leonardo died in 1519, leaving behind fewer than two dozen completed paintings, thousands of notebook pages, and an enduring legacy as one of history’s most original thinkers. Isaacson concludes the biography not with a definitive summation, but with a meditation on Leonardo’s worldview: that beauty, truth, and knowledge are found at the intersection of disciplines. In an age increasingly siloed by specialization, Isaacson’s portrayal of Leonardo’s life offers a reminder that creativity often blooms through curiosity, observation, and the willingness to connect art to science, and wonder to reason.