Leonardo: Capstone of the Renaissance
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library welcomes back art historian Linda Blair with a new lecture series, Leonardo. For many years now, Blair has been one of the Athenaeum’s most popular speakers.
Finally, we arrive at Leonardo. He was so ahead of his time, his concepts and inventions lay dormant for centuries. Whether a newly designed city with underground pipes to dispose of waste; submarines and diving suits in Venice to repel sea invaders (followed by the decision to not disclose his plans because “man is evil”), or creating a model glass aorta to study the functioning of the aortic valve, using water containing grass seed to observe the pattern of flow... so many ideas, but so much futility. All that genius—and it was not impractical genius—just too early, too out of his time.