Leonardo da Vinci, the archetype of the total artist

The eternal polymath stood out in history through his skill in multiple fields, including painting (in various media), sculpture, engineering, architecture, music, and even anatomy. For Da Vinci, all areas of life were interconnected, and he was, perhaps, a forerunner of what we now call inter- and transdisciplinarity. Using knowledge from one discipline, he succeeded in inventing creations that laid the foundation for numerous things that still fascinate us today—from the helicopter to the submarine. 

The relevance of this fusion between art and science gains new meanings today, through the work of many artists who use objects or even unconventional media—from tubes, panels, or tools from the IT field, to animals, insects, or plants. WIN Gallery supports these explorations, the most recent collaboration with Art Mirror speaking about the bridge created between art, technology, sustainable design, and the promotion of Romania internationally through outstanding figures from our country. 

Leonardo da Vinci was a visionary in the field of engineering, leaving behind hundreds of sketches and technical concepts that anticipated inventions centuries before they became reality. He designed complex mechanisms such as gears, hydraulic pumps, cranes, mobile bridges, and war machines—from catapults and siege towers to prototypes of tanks and machine guns. His interest in flight materialized in detailed studies of birds and in sketches of flying devices, including a glider and a rudimentary model of a helicopter (the ornithopter). Although most of these inventions were not built during his lifetime, they demonstrate a deep understanding of mechanical principles and an astonishing ability to combine natural observation with technological foresight. Leonardo was not just a drafter of fantastic machines, but an engineer of ideas, whose concepts influenced modern scientific thought. 

Remodeling Perfection 

Returning to the visual arts, Leonardo da Vinci remodeled the ideal of perfection not only through the aesthetic refinement of proportions but through a profoundly interdisciplinary approach, in which science, observation, and philosophy intertwine with artistic practice. Although the idea of the ideal ratio between parts of the human body has its origins in Antiquity—formulated by the classical Greeks and systematized by Vitruvius in his treatise De Architectura—Leonardo is the one who transformed this ideal into a true research program. The Vitruvian Man, his famous drawing, is not just a representation of the balance between the square and the circle but a statement about man as the measure of all things. Thus, proportion becomes for him a living dynamic, not a fixed rule—a balance in constant adaptation. His studies are sequential and build a scale of understanding that starts from the particular and ascends toward the universal. 

This vision is all the more relevant today, when the artistic and scientific paradigm has once again become a hybrid one. In the era of technology, artificial intelligence, and bio-design, the ideal of perfection is no longer defined by static symmetry but by the ability to integrate knowledge from diverse fields. Da Vinci’s vision offers us an operational model even in the 21st century: one of viewing the human being and human creation through a holistic lens, in which harmony is not achieved through isolation but through connection. By reading contemporary art from this perspective, we can recognize in transdisciplinary projects—such as bio-reactive installations or algorithmic architecture—the same ideal of proportion as a reflection of a deeper order, in which aesthetics, ethics, and functionality blend into a coherent whole. 

World Art Day 

Historically, World Art Day has a relatively recent past, having been officially announced in 2012 by the International Association of Art, in partnership with UNESCO. Its role is to celebrate the importance of art in human development, through the impact it has on every field of activity. Given the spread and omnipresence of this topic, World Art Day is celebrated around the globe through special ceremonies, exhibitions, conferences, urban interventions, or vernissages organized specifically for this occasion. 

Beyond its apparent festivity, this day has a profound cultural significance: it offers a symbolic framework in which art is recognized not only as an individual expression but as a collective instrument of reflection, cohesion, and transformation. In a society marked by polarization, tension, and accelerated rhythms, art remains one of the few spaces where dialogue is still possible and authentic, and meanings can be negotiated through imagination, not conflict. It creates invisible connections between generations, between past and present, between individual and community, offering a platform where identities are affirmed and reconfigured. World Art Day brings to the forefront this vital function of artistic creation, reaffirming its role not only in the aesthetics of the world but in its very structure. 

Celebrating World Art Day through the perpetual homage to Leonardo da Vinci highlights his importance not only as an artist but as a model of thought and total creativity, still relevant after more than half a millennium. The harmony between art and science has never been lost, but has fluctuated sinusoidally, with today’s upward trend marking a renewed interest—one that, as far as we know, was also shared by Da Vinci’s fellow Renaissance thinkers. 

Perhaps true modernity does not mean a rupture from the past, but a constant reevaluation that also takes into account the teachings of history. From Da Vinci, we must not forget that beauty is inseparable from truth, and knowledge does not exclude sensitivity. 

Ph.D. Researcher Andrei FĂȘIE