Five hundred years ago, on May 2, 1519, the greatest genius who ever lived died at the Amboise Castle in France. His name, Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, more commonly known as Leonardo, will be remembered for all times to come, because he developed the talent of making others discover the pathway to the creative process of the human mind in a way that no one else has surpassed.
Today, we celebrate the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s leaving mankind a heritage of the sciences of anatomy, architecture, astronomy, botany, cartography, drawing, engineering, geology, geometry, history, mathematics, music, painting, physical science, sculpting, and writing. Most of all, Leonardo epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal of man.
This report is on the epistemological significance of the ceiling decoration that Leonardo painted in the Sala delle Asse in the Sforza Castle of Milan during the two year period of 1495 to 1497. Was this fresco a mere decoration or was he giving us a new discovery of principle? The fact that this so-called “decoration” was painted at the same time that he composed The Last Supper is not a coincidence. There exists a hidden discovery of principle between the two.
