Italy Realized

I have been back in Indiana for about two weeks now. I take the CityBus as opposed to a Vaporetto, the streets don’t flood, and my daily classes are much more STEM focused than our morning talks on art history or music. I have also, unfortunately, not eaten a single tiramisu in the past two weeks. However, since departing from San Servolo, it has become apparent how much I learned in Italy, and how much of what I learned about has had a lasting impact on our world.

Focusing solely on the Leonardo Da Vinci and the Renaissance aspect of what we covered on the trip, I am hard pressed to find a situation in West Lafayette where my newfound knowledge cannot be applied or is helpful in some way. For example, I am in Biology 110 and before spring break I set up a standing appointment with the course coordinator. When I showed up at his office the Tuesday after break I saw that he had a little graphic image of the Annunciation of the Virgin on the wall. Of course, I had seen it when I met with him before break, but after break I really noticed it. I told him about what I did over spring break and about Leonardo’s version of the painting, how the wing of the angel was modeled after a bird wing and how someone had changed it later...etc. I mean, how wild is it that Leonardo Da Vinci’s work is so widespread today that even when I set out with the intention to discuss protein synthesis I am able to find a way to connect to art history and Leonardo Da Vinci.

Just last Thursday I went with members of my exploratory studies class to All Fired Up to paint some pottery, and as soon as I walked in the building I found myself staring at a giant portrait of the Mona Lisa painted on the wall. I think since returning to the United States, I am experiencing the frequency illusion. The frequency illusion is a phenomenon where once you hear or experience something, in this case learning about Leonardo and the Renaissance, you start to see it all the time. And with Leonardo Da Vinci’s work, it is not that hard to stumble upon.

In class we talked a lot about the paradigm shift between the Medieval Period and the Renaissance. Because Leonardo Da Vinci, as an engineer, artist, and bona fide “Renaissance Man”, contributed to the establishment of the paradigm that we are most comfortable in today, I wonder if it is really any surprise that we see his work and influence in such frequency. In class we also discussed how we are currently in the midst of our own paradigm shift, perhaps away from many of the Renaissance-esque sensibilities. I wonder if Da Vinci’s influence will remain as strong, once humanity enters a paradigm his work did not lay the foundation for? From Irma Richter’s selections from Da Vinci’s notebooks there is the quote in the Preface by Martin Kemp, “Leonardo’s notebooks are amongst the most remarkable survivals in the history of human culture (7).” Based on everything I learned during spring break and the readings leading up to the trip, I agree with Kemp. If Da Vinci’s work and influence could remain strong through everything that has happened over the last 500 years, I can’t imagine that his legacy would not be able to survive a paradigm shift.

It is possible that Leonardo Da Vinci could be just as influential in the transition towards the new paradigm. In Kuhn’s article, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, he says, “Led by a new paradigm, scientists adopt new instruments and look in new places. Even more important, during revolutions scientists see new and different things when looking with familiar instruments in places they have looked before (111).” Kuhn later says, “The scientist can have no recourse above or beyond what he sees with his eyes and instruments (114).” With current fast paced growth in technology and its ever advancing abilities, scientists may chose to revisit Da Vinci’s work, and using advanced technological instruments that Leonardo did not have, find something groundbreaking. Maybe in a few hundred years, students will go on a spring break study-away to learn about how Leonardo Da Vinci’s centuries old scholarship inspired their new paradigm. Vitruvius’s work from Ancient Rome inspired Da Vinci’s studies in anatomy, so why not?

Over the past two weeks, I have also been thinking about what I have learned about myself and the world I live in as a result of my spring break adventure. In my first Italy Imagined post, I said that I expected to be very confused in Italy, a new environment to me, but that I also thought that I would quickly get my bearings. I did, thankfully, and the experience of becoming comfortable in an unfamiliar situation gave me a certain confidence in my abilities. I have always liked to know exactly what is going on. In Italy, every day held new and unknown variables and challenges to discover and overcome. As I found myself thriving in these unknown situations, I developed a desire to continue to explore the unknown because I now know I can handle it. As Leonardo wrote, “Wisdom is the daughter of experience (“Notebooks” 7).” The more I interact with the unknown, the more experience I will have, and thus my wisdom about myself and the world will increase. 

The week we spent in Italy was full of adventure and excitement. Before I departed on this journey, I made a hypothesis in my Italy Imagined Pt. 1 blog post that learning on site in Italy and to actually see what we learned about would “enhance our education from regular to extraordinary.” I hit the nail on the head when it came to how my education would be impacted and I hope to have more educational opportunities where I am able to fully engage in the course material as I was in Italy.

--Ally

Sources:

Da Vinci, Leonardo. Leonardo Da Vinci Notebooks. Selected by Irma A. Richter. Edited by Thereza Wells. Preface by Martin Kemp. Oxford University Press, 2008, 1-11.

Kuhn, Thomas, “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”. University of Chicago Press, 2012, pp.111-129.