So many important and famous people have lived over the years: Galileo, Einstein, Hitler, Newton, Lincoln, Washington, Churchill, and Gandhi. If I had an opportunity to go back in history, I would like to have a conversation with all of them. Of all these and many more significant characters, if I was allowed to meet one, I would choose to travel back to the late 1400’s and meet one of the most brilliant thinkers of the time, Leonardo da Vinci.

There are many reasons why I would like to meet Leonardo da Vinci. He has quite a résumé. Da Vinci is most commonly known as one of the most famous artists of all time. His paintings The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper are virtually priceless today. Also, he was probably the first to make detailed anatomical sketches on various parts of the human body. He is known for his Vitruvian Man as well. Not many people know him as a mathematician, but in fact, he wrote the book The Divine Proportion on the golden ratio (in geometry). Leonardo da Vinci was a great thinker and inventor and thought up his own version of a submarine and air plane long before anybody else. The best thing I like about him is that he bought birds just to set them free from their cages, showing his character.

If I had a chance to meet Leonardo da Vinci, there would be so many things I would like to tell him about the radically different world today. I would talk about transportation: cars, trains, boats, and air planes; even though I know it would be hard to describe and explain. I would love to tell him how humans have been able to reach out to the heavens and even land on the moon. Another thing that would amaze him is how much communication has developed; cell phones, computers, and internet would be virtually unfathomable to him. Regardless, he thought up inventions well ahead of his time, and I think he would enjoy learning how much technology has grown and how we implement it in our everyday lives.

Also, he deserves to know how his artwork is faring. I would love to tell him about the millions of people visiting the Louvre Museum in Paris, France to see the most valuable portrait of all time in my opinion: his own Mona Lisa. I could ask him about her mysterious smile and how he was able to make her eyes move. I would also like to know who he was depicting. Another thing I could tell him is about how art has developed. I could show some genres of art he has never seen such as abstract art.

Leonardo da Vinci was a truly great man. He of all people would love to know how technology has advanced over the 500 years. I think he would be pleased that his art has come a long way, but most of all, I think that he would just love the fact that his name still lives on today.

 

 

 

A MEETING WITH LEONARDO

Ruchit N.