WHAT A GENIUS !

                                                    WHAT A GENIUS!

                                                                                                                            

                                                                                                                               

Once asked. “What is genius?” a famous philosopher replied,” A person who is different in all things”. But what exactly does that mean? Lets look at one of the best examples of a genius, Leonardo Da Vinci, the brilliant Italian painter,architect,scientist and engineer, to see if this is true.

             Born in a small town of Vinci, near Florence in Italy, Leonardo was the eldest son of a wealthy man. When he was only fourteen years old his father send him to study with a famous artist of the time and for the very beginning , Leonardo showed that he had great talent. His most famous work, the Mona Lisa,is one of the most talked about portraits ever painted. The most amazing thing about it is that her eyes seem to follow you wherever you go! It is interesting to note , though , that he only painted seventeen pictures  in his career, but they were so good that he is remembered as a great painter!

               Unlike the majority of his  fellow fifteenth-century Italians, Leonardo was a vegetarian and he was very concerned about the right of animals to be free. Another thing that set him apart from others was the fact that he was left-handed. At that time, anyone writing with their left hand was thought to be different and was often forced into using their other hand to write. Leonardo ,however refused to change and it has been said that this “difference” was part of his genius  because it allowed him to see things in a special way. He , like many other people who are left-handed, was able to write backwards and it is impossible for anyone to read his many books of notes without using a mirror!!!

          Also , Leonardo was a man whose ideas were far ahead of his time. He predicted the invention of the airplane and the submarine and even invented a large number of clever machines himself, among them an underwater diving suit, the parachute and the scissors!

          In fact , when we look at his achievements , we can see that Leonardo was unique in many ways and he left us with both works of art and inventions which have made our lives better in a number of ways!!

                                                                  Konstantinos Kalemis