Curiosita and Sfumato; Da Vinci’s Principles on a Fulfilling Life
2 tips on living an intentional, fulfilling life, from the great renaissance genius, Leonardo Da Vinci.
Heavily inspired by Michael J Gelb’s bestseller, How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci.
Who is Da Vinci? 👨🏻🎨
To sum up this creative genius in one word, it would have to be omnipotent.
Never before have we seen one man influence so many different fields at once!
Although he is most famous for his art, with pieces such as The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper coming to mind, he was also largely involved in many other areas of life! He was not just a sculptor and artist, but also an engineer, architect, scientist and inventor!
He is among the most influential figures in history, working in the renaissance period, having left a significant legacy not only in the realm of art but in science as well, each discipline informing his mastery of the other.
He had a million questions, and over the course of his 67 years (from 1452–1519), he tried to answer each and every one. For some, he was successful, and for others, they were left unanswered for years!
He, consciously or not, operated by 7 specific principles, two of which are Curiosita and Sfumato.
What is the Renaissance? 🇫🇷
With the name coming from the french verb of renaitre, meaning to revive, and the noun naissance, meaning birth, together, it means ‘rebirth’.
This time period, dating from 1500–1700, is all about a rebirth of new ideas, regarding science, medicine, technology, and especially art.
People, ordinary and rich alike, had an insatiable curiosity; they wanted to find out everything they could!
This curiosity led to risky experiments, some of which failed greatly, but more importantly, immense scientific and technological breakthroughs; a great amount of these new breakthroughs done by Da Vinci himself.
Why? 💀
It is argued that this period of rebirth was a result of the Black Death in 1348, a great plague that wiped out 1/3 of the European population!
Before this plague, people had been entirely dependant upon the Church and religion.
The Church had full control over what was published, and what ideas were promoted; this made true advancements, be it medical or artistic, extremely difficult.
It was seen, however, that after The Black Death, the Church’s grip was beginning to loosen, and people were looking elsewhere for guidance. Primarily, people were vigilant, and took things into their own hands!
Curiosita & Sfumato
Curiosita 💭
This is a principle that the renaissance genius held deeply in his heart, and helped guide him through multiple discoveries and pieces of work.
What?
The principle of curiosita regards having an insatiable curiosity towards the world, with an deep desire to learn more.
It is a sheer curiosity for everything and anything, an ache to know, learn and experience.
Rather than being closed off, with a fixed mindset, it regards staying open to all things, even, maybe even especially, if they seem to go against your current beliefs and ideals.
Curiositá is embracing the unknown, embracing new ideas and practices.
Da Vinci and Curiositá
From a very young age, in his years in the Tuscany hills, Leonardo demonstrated this trait profoundly.
For example, when in class, he would ask his math teacher such questions that it left her entirely dumbfounded, for not even the teacher knew the answer!
Later, during his adult life, his quest for the truth, his mission to uncover and discover, continued. He never stopped questioning the contemporary ideals and beliefs, never stopped trying to find the truth.
That was his true passion and devotion; for the truth.
Within his work and experiments, he studied everything through a minimum of 3 lenses! He did this to get different outlooks and answers to his questions.
To demonstrate, during his dissections, he would experiment from three different angles, not just restricting himself to one. With designs and plans, he would cultivate 3 separate approaches , and conducted all of the experiments with great zest.
Not to mention the fact that, at age 42, he taught himself Latin!
Action Points
To live more intentionally, and therefore encourage your curiosita, here are a few action points;
- Always look for the counter argument.
- Dive deeply into the unknown.
- Cultivate an open mind for all things.
- Figure out how things work in the bigger picture.
- Challenge your current beliefs.
- Look at things through a different lens.
Sfumato 💨
What?
Sfumato is a willingness, an eagerness even, to embrace ambiguity, paradox and uncertainty.
The literal translation in Italian is ‘going up in smoke’ or ‘smoked’.
On Reaching Creative Potential
To reach creative potential, it is evident that we must be willing to embrace change.
This idea of change, when things differ from what they once were, is at the very foundation of creativity, success and happiness.
Things will change, there’s no way around that.
Your responsibility is to be not just accepting of change, but to embrace it also.
To reach full creative potential, you;
- You must be accepting of new ideas, different ideas.
- You cannot stay restricted to just one set of ways, you must explore and search for new ones.
- You are to practice straying from your set ways, experimenting and trying out different things.
Change
Change scares many of us, for it forces us into a realm of uncertainty and ambiguity.
With change, there is no way that we can plan or predict it. And, common for many of us, we fear what we cannot predict.
When in a situation that we haven’t planned for, we cannot ensure that we will be safe. This lack of safety is what provokes fear.
In our mind, we equate lack of safety with immediate danger, and although it’s primal, and often wrong, it’s understandable too.
We have the belief that something within the change will harm us. The idea that something will hurt us in some unpredictable way, whether we are conscious of this belief or not.
And so, we try our hardest to shy away from it. The primal part of our brain pushes us as far away from the danger, therefore the change, as it possibly can.
This idea, the human nature to shy away from change, can also be explained in terms of the comfort zone.
The comfort zone is an area of total safety and reassurance. When in this zone, we know that there is a slim chance of things going wrong.
Many of us are stuck in our comfort zone, and not even aware of it!
Yet, the grave benefits of stepping out of that zone, and embracing ambiguity are unparalleled.
How To Overcome This Fear Of Change?
It begins with recognising that the mind likes to exaggerate, and our fears are never as bad as the mind makes them out to be.
Whatever danger we think lays ahead is mostly a fabrication, that the reality of the situation is not as terrible as we imagine.
Da Vinci on Sfumato
Da Vinci took great note of the benefits of Sfumato, of embracing change and differences.
Within his life, as he also valued experience and curiosity, he would stumble across new ideas and uncertainty all the time. It was an essential part of his life, something that he couldn’t fear.
Rather than shying away from it all, when confronting the vast unknown directly, he practiced keeping an open mind and not letting fear cloud his judgement.
Lots of what he discovered contradicted beliefs he had previously held dearly. He could’ve just ignored this, but he delved deeper into it, and tried to figure out what was the exact truth!
He did not let past beliefs limit him, but used them to get closer to the truth.
Da Vinci used uncertainty to expand his horizons, better his ideas and overall happiness.
Action Points
It is common that, in our life, if something provokes a change in us, we wish desperately to go back to the way things were. We try resist the change as much as we can.
However, true growth is always on the other side of resistance.
Rather than shying away from change, to practice the great principle of Sfumato, there are two steps.
Accept
You must first accept that change is inevitable.
No matter how much you resist, or what you do to reverse it, change will happen.
Some changes will be beneficial, and some will seem like a great obstacle. With both types of change, you must accept them.
This quote from the fiction piece Call Me By Your Name outlines this perfectly,
‘The meaning of the river flowing is not that all things are changing so that we cannot encounter them twice, but that some things stay the same only by changing.’
Embrace
You cannot stop at just acceptance!
With the notion that all change is inevitable, the next step is to embrace that.
With an open mind, you are to encourage all types of change, even better if you propel yourself into situations of change. True growth happens here.
Embrace discomfort, allow as much of it into your life as you can!
Learning Points
To live a life full of promise, experience and greatness, we are to embrace sfumato, rather than shy away from it.
Shying away from uncertainty closes us off from greater opportunities. It keeps us stagnant and stuck.
Instead, we are to accept and encourage paradox, and constantly challenge what we deem to be the truth.
