The Backstory: Did Leonardo da Vinci invent robots and the helicopter??

We revisit the life of the greatest artist in history as Ken Burns releases his new documentary “Leonardo da Vinci.” Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest artists in the history of the world. And he loved understanding how things worked, coming up with designs for helicopters, robots, a self-propelled car, and machine guns centuries before they got made. He was also one wacky guy! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, If like me, you're a huge fan of
Ken Burns, the world's greatest documentarian, or like me, you're
fascinated by the greatest artist slash genius in history, Leonardo
da Vinci, this one is for you. Burne's new documentary
Leonardo da Vinci that Makes Sense and debuting this week,

(00:21):
tells the story of a guy who defines the term
renaissance man. I'm Patty Steele. Leonardo da Vinci, from the
Mona Lisa to the helicopter that's next on the backstory.
The backstory is back. Leonardo da Vinci wasn't a bad artist,

(00:42):
think the Mona Lisa, but he was also an incredible inventor.
He designed everything from a helicopter to scuba gear to
machine guns. Almost six hundred years ago, no Wonder, Steve
Jobs called Da Vinci his hero, but he was also
a wacky character, part of what makes him fascinating. I

(01:02):
thought we'd revisit this peak into Da Vinci's life as
we welcome Ken Burn's new documentary Leonardo da Vinci on PBS.
Do you know who Apple founder Steve jobs all time
hero was? It was Leonardo da Vinci. Now think about it,
both of them were fascinated with both the arts and science,

(01:24):
sort of like Ben Franklin, even Albert Einstein's all about design.
They loved beauty so much they became obsessed with understanding
it and how it worked. Da Vinci was, of course
one of the great masters, with paintings like The Last
Supper and really the most famous painting in the world,
the Mona Lisa. Have you ever waited online to see
that it'sy bitsy work of art? It's only two and

(01:47):
a half feet tall nineteen inches wide, but who doesn't
at least attempt to get a peek at out if
they managed to get to Paris anyway. Da Vinci was
born in fourteen fifty two, but he was centuries ahead
of his time. I mean, this guy created the first
prototypes of helicopters, a self propelled car, scuba gear, robots,

(02:08):
machine guns, and parachutes and there's a lot more. And
the parachutes before there was anything to jump from. But
you know how really talented people are also sometimes a
little wacky. That was Leonardo. He had a really interesting childhood,
born to a very poor, very young mother. He lived
with her until he was about five years old. Then

(02:31):
his wealthy dad took over and moved him to his home. There,
he was exposed to books and especially to his father's
art collection. He explored both and was crazy curious about
everything he studied. Fortunately for him, his dad appreciated his individuality. Now,
imagine what it would be like living in Italy in

(02:53):
the fourteen hundreds, and you're illegitimate, you're gay, you're a vegetarian,
and historians agree he was likely ADHD since he was
really easily distracted. Now, on top of that, he was
left handed. Doesn't seem like a big deal, right, Well,
back then it was seen as the mark of the devil.
In fact, the very word sinister is based on the

(03:15):
Latin word for left. But Leonardo was also really a
gorgeous guy, and he had this big, warm personality as
well as amazing talent. He loved super stylish clothing, He
loved birds and other animals. In fact, he would even
buy caged birds just to immediately set them free. He
was definitely a romantic. By the age of fourteen, he

(03:37):
had been sent to Florence to be an apprentice at
a big time artist's workshop, and his career really kind
of took off from there. Legend has it the artist
he worked for was so shocked by Da Vinci's talent
he stopped painting himself because he felt he could never
measure up to this kid. In fact, one of Leonardo's paintings,
Salvatore Monday, sold in twenty seven Ventine for over four

(04:02):
hundred and fifty million dollars. That's the most ever paid
for any painting, and they didn't expect it to go
for anywhere close to that. So Leonardo's artwork kind of
speaks for itself, I guess. But what really thrilled him
was mechanics, how stuff worked. He could not stop dreaming
about what was possible. Even though he was a really
gentle soul. He made a bundle working for aristocrats and

(04:25):
royals like the Medici family, designing all kinds of devices
for military use, including an armored fighting vehicle that was
an awful lot like today's tanks. He also designed weapons,
including that machine gun I mentioned earlier that was able
to rain just a continuous barrage of firepower. And get this,
he also designed a robot night who knew about robots

(04:48):
back then. In addition, he figured out how to harness
concentrated solar power, and he designed an early adding machine.
And on top of all that, he was fascinated by anatomy.
His Fami Vitruvian man drawing is a perfect example of
that interest. During his lifetime, hospitals such as they were
in those days, allowed him to dissect over thirty human bodies,

(05:11):
and he did detailed drawings of human and animal anatomy
that were used for centuries. His drawings detailed how different
organs work in our bodies and even how the eye
processes light. Da Vinci died in fifteen nineteen while in
France working for King Francis, the First who had become
a really close friend. He was sixty seven years old.

(05:34):
What day he leave behind? Well, this is wild. He
left over seven thousand pages of notes and sketches in
big journal type books, but they're almost impossible to decipher.
Problem is that wacky Leonardo would write in what's called
mirror script, with everything in reverse. It actually wasn't to

(05:54):
confuse potential thieves who might try to steal his ideas,
but he mostly did it because it was easier for him,
as a left handed guy, to write backwards so he
could see what he'd written and so as not to
smear the ink on the page. He'd fill these journals
with all sorts of scribbles, a lot of which only
he could understand. The world knows him as one of

(06:16):
the greatest artists in history, but it was his genius
for helping us understand how things work that made Leonardo
da Vinci the original renaissance man. I'm Patty Steele. The

(06:39):
Backstory is a production of iHeartMedia and Steel Trap Productions.
Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our executive producer is Steve
Goldstein of Amplify Media. We're out with new episodes twice
a week. Thanks for listening to The Backstory, the pieces
of history you didn't know you needed to know.