Choices

Leonardo da Vinci
Image from rfi

Leonardo da Vinci was an illegitimate child. However, his father was considerate enough to let him grow up in the Vinci mansion though he was not entitled to get any formal education. He had minimal schooling. His boyhood was spent on the Vinci estate and surrounding landscapes watching birds and animals, cliffs and waterfalls.

One day the little Leonardo grabbed some sheets of paper (not easily available in those days) from his father’s office in order to sketch the beautiful things he saw around. He had no teachers, no paintings to learn from; he was his own master.

Eventually his talent came to the attention of his father. Leonardo was sent at the age of 14 to be an apprentice of the Florentine artist Andrea del Verrocchio. Verrocchio taught much more than art to his disciples. Leonardo too learnt engineering, mechanics, chemistry and metallurgy from the master.

In 1481, at the age of 29, Leonardo was a master himself. The Pope was looking for the best artists to decorate the Sistine Chapel which he had just built. Lorenzo de’ Medici was asked to find the artists. Lorenzo never liked Leonardo because the latter had no knowledge of the classics while the former was a great scholar. Leonardo felt bitter at this rejection. He also hated the role played by sycophancy in securing success in life.

Leonardo decided to make a choice: a choice between bitterness and steadfastness, between failure and success, between rejection by others and self-acceptance. The choice made all the difference to his life.

Leonardo decided to settle down in Milan and be more than an artist. He pursued all of the crafts and sciences that interested him: architecture, military engineering, hydraulics, anatomy, and sculpture. The rest is history: Leonardo became one of the greatest masters of the period. Mastery was his choice. Our choices make all the difference.

“When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return,” said Leonardo. The sky was his choice. Heaven was his choice. He made himself belong there. That belonging was a choice.

PS. Written for Indispire Edition 295: #WiseChoices