Hey — It’s Toffer.
I was in Italy. Salai’s dad slammed the door behind him and signaled us to leave. He was furious because his investor wanted him to stop searching for the “perfect” criminal-looking reference for the Judas in his latest project, The Last Supper. Little did the investor know that he’d end up being the reference because of his stinginess.
My interview with Leonardo Da Vinci was mostly waiting and getting drunk with his adopted son, Gian “Salai” Giacomo Caprotti. But it was worth it.
Estimated read time: 5 minutes
Ruthless
I had a bunch of questions prepared, but I didn’t prepare for this. Because of constant rescheduling, I had to send my questions in writing just to get something. His response was in backwards writing with a note to read slowly — not that it wasn’t difficult already.
“Common sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.”
That was the message. Salai said he didn’t understand it either, but after a couple of shots it made sense. He was simply saying I had none because I should’ve known that I wouldn’t get an audience.
But I persisted.
Release
I finally caught him on his way to buy another bird just to set free. What a weirdo.
I told him I was writing a book to set free the stuff in my head. See what I did there? He liked that because he finally spoke:
“All knowledge which ends in words will die as quickly as it came to life, with the exception of the written word: which is its mechanical part.”
Good start. But I knew I might just get that one response for the day, so I had to get his attention. I told him I knew exactly when he’d die.
“Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.”
The polymath was unmoved. I stopped the tricks and asked him an honest question of what motivates him doing what he does. So many things in his plate and everything crazy quality. How? Why?
“Experience never errs; it is only your judgement that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments.”
Layered
I could not believe it. I was allowed to watch him paint. Truth is, I’m not sure if he was actually putting anything on the Mona Lisa. The paint was so thin and at his age, I’m sure he could hardly see anything.
There were other paintings in the room — about four layers of art, all beautiful, but all unfinished. He saw my wonder.
“Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
Legend
Leonardo Da Vinci was rude when he spoke. But he really didn’t have to say anything for me to see why he was the legend of legends. He had no time for me but just being himself showed me how it should be done.
“It has long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”
Your Friend in Time,
Toffer