DA VINCI

A painting by Leonardo da Vinci sold for $450.3 million at Christie's, by far the highest price for any work
of art sold at auction—and a sign of the lofty place the great Italian artist holds in our imagination.

Today, the term “genius” is bandied about to describe pop stars, stand-up comedians, and even
footballers. But Leonardo da Vinci earned the description, explains Walter Isaacson in his lavishly
illustrated new biography. From iconic paintings—“Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper”—to designs for
flying machines and ground-breaking studies on optics and perspective, Leonardo fused science and art
to create works that have become part of humanity’s story. [Find out what science tells us about
geniuses.]

the cover of a book

COURTESY SIMON & SCHUSTER

When National Geographic caught up with Isaacson by phone at his home in Washington, D.C., he
explained why Mona Lisa’s smile is the culmination of a lifetime of inquiry; how Michelangelo and
Leonardo couldn’t stand each other; and why being curious was Leonardo’s defining trait.

We have to start with the most famous smile in the world. Where does the “Mona Lisa” fit into
Leonardo’s life and work—and how has she managed to bewitch us for 500 years?

The Mona Lisa’s smile is the culmination of a lifetime spent studying art, science, optics, and every other
possible field that he could apply his curiosity to, including understanding the universe and how we fit
into it.

Leonardo spent many pages in his notebook dissecting the human face to figure out every muscle and
nerve that touched the lips. On one of those pages you see a faint sketch at the top of the beginning of
the smile of the Mona Lisa. Leonardo kept that painting from 1503, when he started it, to his deathbed
in 1519, trying to get every aspect exactly right in layer after layer. During that period, he dissected the
human eye on cadavers and was able to understand that the center of the retina sees detail, but the
edges see shadows and shapes better. If you look directly at the Mona Lisa smile, the corners of the lips
turn downward slightly, but shadows and light make it seem like it’s turning upwards. As you move your
eyes across her face the smile flickers on and off.

He carried his notebook around as he walked through Florence or Milan, and always sketched people’s
expressions and emotions and tried to relate that to the inner feelings they were having. You see that
most obviously in “The Last Supper.”

the Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa'

PHOTOGRAPH BY VCG WILSON, CORBIS/GETTY

But the “Mona Lisa” is the culmination because the emotions that she’s expressing, just like her smile,
are a bit elusive. Every time you look at her it seems slightly different. Unlike other portraits of the time,
this is not just a flat, surface depiction. It tries to depict the inner emotions.

His other most famous masterpiece is “The Last Supper,” which you call “the most spell-binding narrative
painting in history.” Take us inside its creation—and explain why it is such a supreme work of art.

The Duke of Milan asked him to paint it on the wall of a dining hall of a monastery. Unlike other
depictions of “The Last Supper,” of which there were hundreds at the time, Leonardo doesn’t just
capture a moment. He understands that there is no such thing as a disconnected instant of time. He
writes that any instant has what’s come before it and after it embodied into it, because it’s in motion.