Palm Springs, CA - In the last few years, the world has rediscovered Leonardo da Vinci through a major work of popular fiction. But the reality of Leonardo’s life is that even the best fiction could not convincingly portray his multifaceted personality or fully document his achievements in the worlds of engineering, design, art, aviation and construction.  He is credited with inventing the scientific method, he drew plans for utopian cities, and he created some of the most famous paintings in the world.  As the BBC noted, “Within the history of art Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) represents 'science' and within the history of science he represents art.”  Another observer has pointed out, “Leonardo's mastery in art, science and engineering have earned him a place among the most prolific geniuses of history.  He was one of the most important artists of the Italian Renaissance, a period when the arts and sciences flourished.”

In the late 15^th and early 16^th centuries, Italy led the world in the development of art and science, and Leonardo was in the vanguard, earning the sobriquet of Renaissance Man as a symbol of his age.  “Leonardo da Vinci epitomized the genius and diversity of achievements that we associate with the Italian Renaissance,” according to an online art educator.  As he described himself:

In time of peace I believe I can give complete satisfaction, equal to any other man, in architecture, in the design of buildings both public and private, and in the guiding of water from one place to another.  Also I can undertake sculpture in marble, bronze or clay, and in painting I can do everything that is possible to do, as well as any other man whoever he may be.

His painting, the Mona Lisa, may be the most famous single piece of art in the world.  He also was the first Italian artist to use paint instead of tempera, and even invented his own paints.  Remarkably, his reputation as the greatest artist of all time is based on fewer than 30 paintings, some of which remain uncompleted, and no signed sculptures.

It is as a designer and engineer that Leonardo continues to astonish us and directly improve our quality of life.  The Web site engineering.com calls him “an incredibly innovative thinker who perceived the world… as his personal playground… with unlimited possibilities…. From his fertile mind sprang designs of flying machines and instruments of war, as well as practical theories and concepts in engineering, mathematics, and science, many of which were centuries ahead of their times.  If da Vinci lived in our time, his accomplishments would have been considered astounding.”

Many of his designs and inventions, were far ahead of his own time – so far ahead, in fact, that they had to wait for today’s before their full power could be realized.  But the principles he developed help to set the standard for modern science, engineering and art. Leonardo set out to write the first systematic explanations of how machines work and how the elements of machines can be combined.  He created a robot that a NASA scientist calls “the first known example in the story of civilization of the programmable analogue computer.”  And the studies he did on flight and aerodynamics underpin all modern flight, from the giant helicopters used in battle to the space shuttle.  When the U.S. television network, PBS, tested one of his designs for a glider, it “was a resounding success, flying farther and longer than the Wright Brothers' plane.”

He was also a man of contradictions.  While he was often employed in the design of armaments, he was opposed to killing and war.  The same scruples led him to become a vegetarian, because he could not stand the idea of killing another creature for food.  His contemporaries report that he would buy live birds in the marketplace and set them free.

“I believe it was fear of additional persecutions over his sexual orientation that led Leonardo to create a subtle form of insurance in his work,” says Godfrey Harris, curator of the Da Vinci Experience, an exhibit featuring full-sized replicas of many of Leonardo’s mechanical inventions.  According to Harris, the master left out crucial details in the designs of some of his military devices, so that his patrons would need him to make the devices operable, thus giving them an incentive to protect him from criminal investigations.

The Da Vinci Experience will be at the Palm Springs Air Museum from Nov. 3, 2006 to March 25, 2007. Information is available by visiting : www.palmspringsairmuseum.org