Sarah and Miles have been full of little facts about him. Miles has mostly been impressed by his inventions. Caleb found the trivia more interesting... learning that some of his artistic masterpieces wouldn't fit into the frames made for them so they were trimmed until they fit.
I've been fascinated at his attempts... not so much his accomplishments, although they are more than impressive. I find that he attempted anything he felt inspired to.... and many times he didn't accomplish any 'thing'... but learned from the attempt nonetheless. And the lack of discouragement is obvious as we've pored over some of his drawings and idea books.
There was a movie at the exhibit that talked about his life and it mentioned that he often started new things or drew plans for things which he never completed. Sometimes the plan was enough.. other times something more interesting to attempt just presented itself and he abandoned his existing project.
After being to the exhibit Miles informed us that Da Vinci wasn't that smart. In fact he said "I'm smarter than Da Vinci. I saw that water invention he made but he just made the water go up the tube and then come right back down into the same place through a little hose. It should go somewhere else or that invention isn't really all that good!" (The fact that is was a replica in a museum and they were just recirculating the water so it wouldn't be all over the floor hadn't occured to him... I guess he wanted it to have a greater purpose!) {See top center photo.}
All in all it was a decent little field trip for some hands on da Vinci. There really wasn't anything new for us to learn about him but it was cool to try out some of the exhibits.
Sarah's favourite was the "night clock"... A candle next to a board with notches in it telling how much time had passed since he had lit the candle. He would light it when he went to bed to know if he'd had enough sleep when he awoke in the middle of the night. She also enjoyed seeing some of his artwork even though they were 'just copies!' (Note the bottom left photo is Sarah and Miles doing their best Mona Lisa impressions)
Miles was of course fascinated by all the different inventions that had to do with aiding in the war of the time. Precursors to our modern day tanks, and helicopters.
Caleb loved the room of eight mirrors used to see something from all angles without having to handle it. Also it was created for some royalty so they could see all angles of themselves when dressing.
Some of our favourite Leonardo Da Vinci quotes are:
- Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!
- Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.
- He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.
- I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.
- I have wasted my hours.
- Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation... even so does inaction sap the vigour of the mind.
- Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else.
- Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
- You can have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself.
- As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.
- Art is never finished, only abandoned.
