INVENTORS / SCIENTISTS — DA VINCI

Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was the quintessential Italian Renaissance genius, celebrated as a painter, inventor, scientist, and anatomist. In a letter sent to Ludovico il Moro around 1482, often regarded as one of the earliest examples of a modern curriculum vitae, Leonardo presented himself primarily as a military engineer rather than emphasizing his artistic abilities in the ordinary sense of the term. Nine of the ten points outlined in the letter bear no relation to art or architecture, instead forming a detailed catalogue of weapons and machines of war. Only the tenth point briefly references his abilities as a civil engineer and, lastly, as an artist. Leonardo’s capacity to merge artistic mastery with a profound understanding of mechanics enabled him to conceive advanced, often theoretical, military technologies. Despite his personal aversion to war, his military designs ranged from rapid‑fire cannons to armoured chariots and vast siege engines, informed by his knowledge of engineering, anatomy, and physics. Movement and the process of construction, the so‑called “science of machines”, are fundamental to Leonardo’s work, just as they are to David Černý’s practice, in which motion is applied to many of his sculptures. In this portrait of Da Vinci, as in those of the other scientists, the viewer can become absorbed in a kind of visual treasure hunt among the objects emerging from within, giving rise to a wide range of “free associations”. On the other hand, it is worth remembering that Leonardo da Vinci was also the subject of an important essay by Sigmund Freud, Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood, and that David dedicated an important sculpture to the father of psychoanalysis in the center of Prague.