Leonardo as natural scientist and philosopher?

October 19 2011

Image of Leonardo as natural scientist and philosopher?

Picture: Royal Collection

Amble on over to Art History Today for a splendidly informative post on Leonardo's fascination with nature:

...it should never be forgotten that Leonardo was primarily a painter; it would therefore be wrong to regard him as a dry scientist recording the natural world with cold detachment. Kenneth Clark puts it best: “the direction of his scientific researches was established by his aesthetic attitudes. He loved certain forms, he wanted to draw them, and while drawing them he began to ask questions, why were they that shape and what were the laws of their growth?” Out of Leonardo’s delight in drawing and painting natural things emerged his scientific urge and insatiable curiosity which powered it. 

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