Hero (noun)
A person, typically a man, who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities473Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDDhsfAF7jM
Choosing one hero is difficult. I have many - Alexandre Dumas, Richard III, Anne Boleyn, Eleanor of Aquitaine… but the pinnacle has to be the mighty Leonardo da Vinci.473Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ21OsLYSXXf
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Leonardo was a man at a time of great progress, and managed to perfect his art to a degree that blows my mind. I am not artistic. I cannot draw, or paint, or sculpt - but I can admire, and the very first time I saw The Annunciation in my pocket-size ‘Complete Works’, I was stunned. The detail and the colour and the veil. The veil that is totally transparent… even now, I am utterly amazed at the achievement. 473Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDiBh3ng5f9
But it is not just his magnificent art that makes Leonardo da Vinci my hero. I love him for his personality more than his art or his math or his science. He was a great animal lover, and longed for the day that killing animals would carry the same punishment as killing a fellow man. He refused to eat meat, and would regularly visit the market and buy a cage of birds, only to set them free immediately.473Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS8v15jdHLu
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But he was also stubborn and flawed and ultimately human. So many of our heroes are placed on pedestals so high that we forget they are, or were, humans just like us. They make mistakes (Leonardo could rarely finish a painting and the Last Supper began to fall apart pretty much as soon he put down the paintbrush), they can be jealous and petty (Leonardo despised Michelangelo and for what reason, no one really knows), and they can refuse to conform to societies rules and still succeed (Leonardo was pretty much openly gay and was even arrested for sodomy at one point).473Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL0azvM3QeA
Leonardo was a perfectionist and could never finish anything on time. He was notorious for never finishing his commissions, but still he managed to become the most famous painter in Renaissance Italy. 473Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUGdstTnHV3
He was flawed and had fears just like us. He had a fear of failure and imperfection, something that I resonate with quite deeply. The idea of failing terrifies me, and the idea of something not being perfect enough for me is a nightmare. Leonardo taught me that sometimes things are going to go wrong, that you simply cannot control your own success rate 100% of the time. That you will make mistakes, but they can not ruin you if you refuse to let them. Learn from your mistakes, don’t let them conquer you.473Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgzrMFQgxaY
Lend your hand to many talents. Test the waters in a myriad of different subjects until you find the one that fits - science, architecture, geology, botany, anatomy, mathematics, philosophy, chemistry…473Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ529Ns77tv8
A man that was so skilled and so kind and, I do believe, with a genuinely good soul. He was no mere painter. He was not even 'just' a polymath. He was so much more than the myth that has surrounded his legacy. He was a human man, with human qualities and a soft heart with a thirst for knowledge.
I guess I share his insatiable lust for knowledge and for all these reasons, Leonardo da Vinci will always be the man who inspires me to be who I am today.473Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbPV3xwHBsk
“Sometimes in a supernatural fashion a single body is lavishly supplied with such beauty, grace and ability that wherever the individual turns, each of his actions is so divine that he leaves behind all other men and clearly makes himself known as a genius endowed by God (which he is) rather than created by human artifice. Men saw this in Leonardo da Vinci, who displayed great physical beauty (which has never been sufficiently praised), a more than infinite grace in every action, and an ability so fit and so vast that wherever his mind turned to difficult tasks, he resolved them completely with ease.” ~ Giorgio Vasari
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