Transcript[]
Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby
Tim is standing behind Moby on the top of a hill. Moby is wearing wings and is preparing to fly.
TIM: I don't think this was designed to be flown by a 500-pound robot!
MOBY: Beep.
Moby jumps and falls down with a crash. Tim winces.
TIM: Wait a second. Can't you fly anyway?
Moby's hand pops up and hands Tim a piece of paper. Tim reads from a typed letter.
TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, Why do so many people talk about Leonardo da Vinci? Thanks, Annelide. Well Annelide, it's because Leonardo da Vinci is worth talking about. He was a sculptor, architect, inventor, engineer, painter, scientist, mathematician. Actually, believe it or not, he did do some party planning.
An image of Leonardo da Vinci's face appears in the center circle. Circles with icons appear for the eight jobs Tim lists.
TIM: Leonardo is probably the best known example of a Renaissance man, someone who excels in many different areas. The Renaissance was a period of great cultural and scientific activity in western Europe, especially Italy. The Italian Renaissance peaked during the 15th century, which is when Leonardo was born, near Florence, Italy, in 1452.
A map of Europe shows Italy and the city of Florence.
TIM: As a teenager, Leonardo was apprenticed to a famous sculptor and painter named Verrocchio.
An image shows the artist, Verrocchio.
TIM: In Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ, the kneeling angel at the left of the painting was painted by a 22-year-old Leonardo. The angel shows Leonardo's incredible promise as a painter.
An image shows a detail of Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ and Leonardo's angel.
MOBY: Beep?
TIM: Well, he didn't produce a lot of paintings, but his influence is still huge. Even if you don't know all that much about art, you're probably familiar with Leonardo's The Last Supper depicting Jesus's final meal.
An image shows Leonardo's The Last Supper.
TIM: And everyone knows the Mona Lisa, now hanging in the Louvre museum in Paris, France. The Mona Lisa shows Leonardo's mastery of two techniques.
An image shows Leonardo’s painting Mona Lisa.
TIM: Sfumato, in which colors are blended seamlessly and skillfully, creates a smoky, ethereal effect.
An image focuses on Mona Lisa's dress in the painting.
TIM: And chiaroscuro, which uses contrasts of light and dark to create a luminous, three-dimensional effect.
An image shows Mona Lisa's hands in the painting.
TIM: But what people remember most about the painting is her expression, sort of a weird cross between a smile and a frown.
An image shows Mona Lisa's face.
TIM: Leonardo's career as an artist led him to his interest in human anatomy. His drawings of muscles, organs, bones, and even fetuses are not only really beautiful but they also advanced our understanding of human physiology.
Images show four of Leonardo's drawings of the human anatomy as Tim describes.
TIM: A lot of what we know about Leonardo comes from his notes and drawings, thousands of pages of which still exist. Museums will often display a notebook, or codex, made up of these collected pages. They show Leonardo's fascination not only with anatomy, but with stars and planets, animals, architecture, geography, and fossils.
An image shows an open notebook and anatomy drawings. Pages turn revealing drawings of the things Tim describes.
TIM: They also demonstrate that as an inventor, Leonardo drew on his observations of the natural world to design mechanical wonders.
Pages show notes and drawings of the male body in a circle on the left and a wing design on the right.
TIM: Some of his drawings planned inventions for things that couldn't possibly have been built at the time.
Images show drawings of four different inventions Leonardo drew.
MOBY: Beep?
TIM: No, he kept them to himself, so most of them weren't actually made public until after his death in 1519. Even then, it was a long time before anyone could decipher his notes. Leonardo wrote in mirror script, which was written backwards.
Moby lifts his finger to the side of his head and makes circles to indicate Leonardo was crazy.< /p> MOBY: Beep!
TIM: Well, he wasn't crazy. He just wanted to protect his work. He also started way more paintings, inventions, and other projects than he ever finished.
An image shows a painting Leonardo didn't finish, in sepia tones.
TIM: If Leonardo had published his notes when he wrote them, they would have revolutionized European science. He understood better than anyone for more than a century afterward how important observation was. That ability to observe led him to actually anticipate scientific discoveries like the circulation of blood, the movement of the eye, and the effect of the moon on the tides…
Images show icons for arteries, an eye, and a moon over the ocean.
TIM: As well as countless inventions, from the car, to the tank, to solar heat collectors.
Images show icons for a car, a tank, and the sun over solar panels.
TIM: In fact, you may be interested to learn that the first design for a robot was drawn by Leonardo da Vinci.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: What? How did you know that?
A panel on Moby's stomach rolls down to reveal a metal plate engraved with "ROBOTS BY LEONARDO."
TIM: Oh, no way!