10/10

The main focus of the entire preface and the life of Da Vinci seemed to focus almost religiously upon perfection of expression and of the artistic form. The author kind of put me off with his belittling of the artists before the start of the Renaissance, seeing their art as fundamentally flawed. But I am hardly an expert on the subject so maybe there are some malicious flaws that make the works hideous that I'm not aware of. I was amazecd to hear about Da Vinci's view of perfection, however, as he essentially seemed to have no ego when it came to his artwork. If he thought something wasn't perfect, he felt no obligation to finish it or even keep it as it wasn't the "utmost example of artistic impression." His tendency to not finish his works also tied into another major theme I found out throughout the work which emphasized the importance of progress as an individual and as an artist, which ties in with the idea of the Renaissance as a whole. Though the author criticized the earlier artists, he expressed their importance in serving as stepping stones for the later artists. They served as a progression of the arts as a whole which made them very important in the author's eyes. Da Vinci's life also served as a portrayal of progress in the fact that he went through so many different types of schooling in his younger life which kept narrowing down fields until he could find his greatest talent. Even in his career of painting and sculpture he rarely seemed to finish his important works of arts, they were always works in progress. Da Vinci seemed to work progressing as an artist until his death, which may have accounted for his lack of ego; he enjoyed the challenge of growing as a thinker and an artist. The two themes go hand in hand as all the progress mentioned was always moving toward perfection in some way, be it the early artists setting the base for later artists or Da Vinci striving his whole life to create the perfect work of art. A good example of this was his leaving the face of Christ blank for a while when painting the Last Supper. This attitude of progressing toward human rights and the perfect society can be defined as the theme of the Rennaissance itself.