THE POWER OF CURIOSITY Leonardo da Vinci by Kant and Klerey

by Kant and Klerey



Welcome to the world of
Leonardo da Vinci

Throughout history regarding the world of science and art, many outstanding
humans have contributed to create and paint new components to a world
that open people’s minds to an endless imagination of possibility. These
can be witnessed through countless world history figures, but one of
the notable among them is Leonardo da Vinci.

He is not only a scientist who like to observe his surroundings, but he also a
prominent engineer and innovator who created hundreds of inventions that
become the base of modern technologies, an anatomist who studied how human
body works, and a talented artist with the heart of brightening up the world with
his brush

Throughout his life, he applied these studies together and became a story for a
new generation that is narrated up to TODAY.

Kantnatt Charatcharoenwitthaya
Kridh Charatcharoenwitthaya

A

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Kantnatt Charatcharoenwitthaya, Kridh Charatcharoenwitthaya
THE POWER OF CURIOSITY, Leonardo da Vinci
Bangkok: PrintAble, 1st December 2022. 32 pages
ISBN 978-616-594-819-7

Written and Illustrated by Kantnatt Charatcharoenwitthaya
Written by Kridh Charatcharoenwitthaya
Printed in Thailand; 1st December 2022; 200 copy

Publisher: Kantnatt Charatcharoenwitthaya
Address: 208/2 Jarunsanitwong Road, Banchanglor, Bangkok Noi,
Bangkok 10700, Thailand

Printing House: PrintAble Co., Ltd.
Address: 285 Phatthanakan 53 Soi, Phatthanakan Sub-district, Suan Luang

District, Bangkok 10250, Thailand / +669 4559 2965

All rights reserved in Thailand according to the Copyright Act, 2558. The publisher
does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for
author or third-party websites or their content. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without permission of the publisher.

B

Contents 1
2
The beginning 4
Early life 6
The start of his journey 10
The notebook 12
His realm on Art 14
Military Inventions 16
Farther in Milan 18
The Black Death 20
Fascinating with water 22
The Maps for peace 24
Journey to touch the sky 28
The human body
The end of the journey C



The beginning

On the 15th of April 1452, on the outskirts of Florence, Italy, a boy named
Leonardo was born near a small village called Vinci. His mother, Caterina,
was a peasant girl, and his father, Ser Piero, was a wealthy Florentine notary.

Because his parents were not married, Leonardo is an illegitimate child,
which means he does not have any last name in the modern sense.
Da Vinci, which many thought was his surname, simply means “of Vinci,”
the town he lived in.

1

Early life

Although Leonardo did not attend a formal school, tutors did teach him
the fundamentals of reading, writing, and mathematics. He apparently had
trouble reading as a young child and was frequently sidetracked, giving up
duties to focus on whatever was happening at the time.

2

Leonardo’s grandfather and uncle Francesco observed that he had trouble
concentrating. Still, instead of disciplining him, they encouraged his
inquisitive mind and observation skill to flourish by sending the little child
off to explore fauna and flora in the nearby fields and vineyards.

Here is where Leonardo’s keen mind and observation power developed,
inspiring many of his discoveries and creations later on in his life.

3

The start of his journey

Once turning 15, Leonardo began to show a natural
talent for art. Leonardo’s father brought his son’s
work portfolio to a friend of the family, Andrea
del Verrocchio.

Verrocchio ran one of the most famous art
workshops in all of Florence. When Verrocchio
saw Leonardo’s work, he was astonished and
urged his father to make sure Leonardo
pursued the arts.

From this, Leonardo da Vinci joined
Verrocchio’s studio as an apprentice,
worked with some of Florence’s top
artists of the period in various fields, and
studied new techniques from chemistry,
metal, plaster casting, leather, mechanics,
and woodwork to drawing, painting,
sculpting, and modeling.

4

5

Leonardo stopped working out of Verrocchio’s studio in 1478 when he began
to get his first independent commission.

Leonardo began keeping his renowned notebooks about the year 1480.
Leonardo was not a prolific painter, and it often took him years to create
a single work.
6

The notebook DID YOU KNOW?

Hewas,however,anextraordinarilyactive Almost all of his writing is in mirror script.
note-taker. He wrote approximately Instead of writing left to right, he wrote right
13,000 pages of notes and sketches. to left. It nearly appears to be some bizarre
Around 7,000 of these pages still survive code to the untrained eye, but it is clearly
on display. visible when seen in a mirror. Some people
think he did this to conceal his work, but
once you realize it’s written backward, it’s
simple to read and understand. There is a
more straightforward explanation: Leonardo
da Vinci was left-handed, and in those days,
ink was very easily smudged. Leonardo,
therefore, developed a method of writing in
mirror script to prevent him from constantly
ruining his work.

7

The notebook

Leonardo rarely wrote about himself or his personal life in his journals,
but it revealed a lot about him when he did. Some people believe that he
experienced depression when he was between the ages of 28 and 30. On a page
in his notebooks that includes a drawing of a water clock and a sundial,
he writes, “We do not lack devices for measuring these miserable days of
ours. In which it should be our pleasure that they are not fritted away
without leaving behind any memory of ourselves in the mind of men.” On
another page, he writes, “While I thought I was learning how to live, I was
learning how to die.”

8

We prefer to think that historical figures who make a significant difference
in the world and our lives are somehow different from us, almost as if they
don’t experience the same difficulties. However, that is untrue. One of the
most well-known artists in history, Leonardo da Vinci left behind a legacy
of inventions and scientific discoveries that we are still learning from and
admiring today. Yet, he’s still a human who experiences the same things
we do in our lives.

9

His realm on Art

Leonardo’s total output in painting, which still survives today, is relatively
small. Only 17 can be certified that are attributed to him, and several of the
paintings are unfinished. However, all of his masterpieces stood out from
others because of his ability to move beyond technique and convey an
underlying sense of emotion into his works. These are all due to Leonardo’s
emphasis on empirical observation, which helped him improve his art.

10

First, he used what he learned and saw from nature and applied it to his
drawing in parts of body, motion, shadow, light perspective, and proportion.
In addition, his anatomical studies later on in his life helped him to better
understand the muscles and important elements of the human body,
making his painting more realistic.
Some of his famous masterpieces are the Mona Lisa, the Virgin of the Rocks,
The Last Supper, the Annunciation and the horse statue.

11

12

Military Inventions

Driven by the desire to understand more about
nature, it fulfilled his quest leading to his
unprecedented understanding of the working of
the natural world. Leonardo’s proficiency as an artist
allowed him to sketch out and plan his inventions
and engineering ideas in great detail. To the point,
his blueprint and sketch can build working replicas
in this modern era.

During the 1480s, Leonardo drafted an application
to the ruler of Milan, Duke Sforza, with the motive
to expand his engineering abilities. He was then
employed and worked as an advisor on the military
defenses of the town. He created many inventions
and later expanded his understanding of the Borgia,
whichgavehimachancetostudymanyoftheexisting
instruments of war and design some of his own. He
developed designs of various weapons, including
submarines, primitive auto-firing guns, and
a fighting vehicle, which were all influenced by
the power of his observation of nature. For instance,
the tank-like vehicle is inspired by a turtle’s shell.

13

Farther in Milan

Furthermore, he contributed to other areas throughout his time in Milan.
He was an architect and a theater producer who created a playhouse and
musical instrument and also continued his work of art, painting one of the
most famous paintings in the world, The Last Supper.

14

15

The Black Death

A series of bubonic plagues that struck Milan for years inspired Leonardo to design
concepts for a future city to prevent the tragic incident of a death. He envisioned a new
the city to be transformed from a narrow, dirty, and crowded, which is entirely conducive
to the spread of disease, into a place where cleanliness is the foundation.

He considered every detail and started by shifting the cityscapes, along with a new sewer
system and a network of canals that would support both commerce and sanitation.

16

Moreover, he implemented a concept of vertical division of the city into three different
areas, each for a different purpose, and gently sloping streets which drain off any waste.
This illustrates an attempt at zoning, an approach to limit the contact and spread of
man-to-man disease, which can be witnessed the same as in the COVID-19 pandemic era.

Ultimately, he planned a car-free downtown, where there are no horse carts that could
impose a threat to pedestrians in the areas, increasing the city’s livability and decreasing
congestion for the town citizens.

17

18

Fascinating
with water

At this time, the town ruler was
overthrown by France, influencing
Leonardo to flee Milan and proceed
to Venice.

Here, he was employed to devise
methods to defend the city
from a seaborne invasion, which
frequently occurred at the time.
He studied the terrain, used up the
advantage that lagoons surround
Venice, and later came up with a
moveable barricade that prevented
the enemy from entering the
waterfront.

Additionally, this is where his idea
for a diving suit emerged, which
enabled someone to breathe
underneath the water.

19

The Maps for peace

Meanwhile, wars were constantly taking place in many parts of the globe.
Once Leonardo returned to Florence, he, together with Machiavelli, plotted
to divert the Arno river, with the hope of stopping the 7-year war with Pisa. By
diverting the river, it would cut off Pisa’s water source, crippling the enemy
troops. The plan later proved unworkable, but their acheivement was still
incredibly profound. This strategy was developed in a series of studies
applying scientific skills and knowledge on water movement, geology, and
engineering as they viewed the riverbank in a panoramic aspect. It enabled
landscape sketches of a map containing a route of the canal for bypassing
the sea with the Arno river to be produced.

20

DID YOU KNOW?
It is not his first attempt at creating a map for a large-scale area. Before his arrival at
Florence, he was serviced under Borgia and traveled across the territories to study
more in military architecture and engineering. In the course of his study, he created
a map of Imola that was so accurate that it can still be used to navigate the city today.

21

Throughout his life, Leonardo showed a tremendous interest in the world
around him. He was inspired by nature and used what he saw to create his
wealth of ideas. A great example of this is the Codex of Flight. Leonardo was
highly fascinated by birds and spent extensive amounts of time studying
and observing them. At the time, people believed birds flew through the
air, similar to how boats float on water. However, Leonardo realized that
was inaccurate. Thus, he set work to study this creature and later applied
what he learned to enable humans to achieve flight.

22

Journey to touch the sky

After figuring out the concept of how birds fly through the vast sky, he
created many pieces of drafts and inventions, including an ornithopter
flying machine with beating wings suitable for imitating the wing structure
and propulsive movement of birds, an aerial screw similar to a modern
helicopter, and a parachute that was later proved to be workable at 10000
feet above the ground.

23

After achieving many successes, he came back to Milan. At this time is when
Leonardo’s scientific inquiry flourished. He continued his anatomy study,
which was believed to first start during his time in Verrochio’s workshop
as a response to people’s fascination with the human body.

As Milan was known to be a center of medical investigation, Leonardo spent
time in local hospitals, speaking and observing patients. Plus, receiving
opportunities to dissect the dead, he dealt chiefly with skeletons and
muscles.

24

The human body

After proceeding to the realm of physiology, he then studied the role of
individual parts of the body and went deeper into their mechanical activities.

Throughout his lifetime, Leonardo achieved many accomplishments in
anatomical and physiological fields, starting from outlining a plan for an
overall work detailing reproductions of the human body and its organ, plus
comparative anatomy of different species.

25

The human body

It is believed that he dissected over 30 bodies, allowing him to make over
240 detailed drawings of human anatomy. The study was almost perfectly
valid in every region, and it was perceived that if it were published within
his lifetime, it would entirely change medical history since some of his
findings were not rediscovered for hundreds of years after his death.

26

In addition, he created a method of mapping internal organ structure to define
the shape and size by injecting hot wax into it, leading to the first known solidifying
medium in medical history. This allowed him to model and theorize how blood flows
and the human heart works, even creating a model glass of it that was proven to
be valid in 2014. Ultimately, Leonardo also observed and recorded the relationship
between age and human emotion in physiology. He completed multiple drawings
of facial muscles and their signs of movements and deformities. However, he found
it to be challenging at that time to unravel the explanation behind our expressions
of emotions, and the project was soon abandoned.

27

The end of the journey

The political events in Milan caused Leonardo and his assistants to move
to Rome. However, at age 65, Leonardo accepted an invitation to soon enter
France and was granted the king’s first painter, architect, and engineer. In
France, Leonardo focused less on painting and shifted to his passion for
his scientific studies, along with writing and completing his treatise on
painting and anatomy.

Eventually, his journey came to an end. Leonardo passed away on the 2nd
of May 1519, leaving behind his legacy to the world.

The Legacy

After traveling through the journey of his life, one thing that we can prominently
see is the fact that Leonardo never stops learning. With his curiosity drove
him to unravel new concepts, he utilizes his observation skill and applies
what he sees to what is in his mind, leading to countless innovative ideas.
However, to come this far, skills alone are not enough. Passion is required.
His story teaches us a lot: to ask more questions and to seek more answers,
never to be afraid to try new things, and most importantly, to love what
you do.

28



“All Our Knowledge
Has Its Origin

In Our Perceptions”
- Leonardo da Vinci

Written and Illustrated by Kantnatt Charatcharoenwitthaya
Written by Kridh Charatcharoenwitthaya