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I get the author's point but this is kind of an odd read. He did finish the horse inasmuch as possible. He made full clay models. He never completed it only bec
by simonsarris 4y ago
I get the author's point but this is kind of an odd read. He did finish the horse inasmuch as possible. He made full clay models. He never completed it only because Ludovico needed the bronze to make cannons for defense instead. But that's not his fault.
And making experimental paints that happened to not last very long is also not a failure to finish something. It's just an experiment.
> misunderstanding several aspects of the heart
These few words don't really give his work justice. He discovered/theorized how the aortic valve and its leaflets worked that was correct and wasn't really conclusively proved for another 400 years. (He was nonetheless wrong about blood circulation, generally)
> to the Mona Lisa - which in itself is unfinished
I don't know. He worked on it for 4 years, taking it with him everywhere, and if it is really unfinished it may be because his right hand was simply starting to paralyze. There's more to be said about perfectionism in the Mona Lisa than Leonardo syndrome.
Leonardo definitely started far more than he could finish (disappointing a lot of patrons), and had a somewhat self-aggrandizing streak in what he claimed he could do, but the examples here are not super accurate. As much as I wasn't crazy about the Walter Isaacson bio its worth reading if you want a better picture of his accomplishments and failures.
At the end of the day he is remembered because he did actually have a very large set of detailed ideas, drawings, plans, and accomplishments. Most of us would love to have created a work of art as unfinished as the Mona Lisa.
- hirundo 4y agoSyndrome implies malady. Better words for this style as applied to Leonardo would be Power/Capacity/Knack/Talent/Aptitude.
- jebarker 4y agoThere is a malady that looks like this where someone is just flaky or incompetent. But then it probably shouldn't be named after Leonardo if he was actually displaying genius levels of knowing when to quit.
- Mtinie 4y ago“Syndrome” would be correct if the underlying reason for Leonardo’s planning and follow-through challenges were due to disordered Executive functions and cognitive controls.
- svat 4y agoOn the other hand, there are many reports that Leonardo himself lamented not finishing things, and wrote “Tell me if anything was ever done” in his notebooks. (I don't know the full context of this—searching online suggests the original was "Dimmi se mai fu fatta alcuna cosa"—but as you yourself say, Leonardo was prone to perfectionism and starting far more than he could finish and had a reputation for disappointing patrons, which seems to fit well with the author's main point, even if the example of the horse doesn't.)
- jackthetab 4y agoAlso, his last words were, “I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.”
- GTP 4y agoBe careful, often this sort of quotes from famous people are invented or at least not documented, although they usually describe the character correctly.
- WhitneyLand 4y agoSounds right. I’m also not sure how damning the accusation is that he worked on squaring the circle. It wouldn’t be proven impossible for hundreds years after his time. I guess you could say he chased something already widely accepted but not proven, but kind of big deal? I wouldn’t fault someone for spending some spare time on P ≠ NP just out of curiosity.