Seeking a Job, Renaissance Style

Leonardo da Vinci supposedly had it all. He was smart, artistically gifted, well dressed, and reputed to be handsome. So why was he always looking for the next job?

Renaissance Florence, the city of Leonardo’s youth, was about as competitive a place to seek employment as any modern city. Its booming economy attracted numerous men of talent who honed their skills to compete for too few positions. Occasionally the economy faltered, sometimes spectacularly. The ebb and flow of politics also affected one’s prospects for a good position. The young Leonardo had to find ways to gain the favor of Florence’s most important patrons, especially the powerful Medici clan. Despite his legendary talents, this was no easy task in a city teeming with plenty of people who held a brush or chisel in their hands and could spontaneously discuss Plato’s philosophy and quote Dante’s verses on the streets.

When we think of Leonardo, we think of his gifted versatility, incessant curiosity and the powerful expression of his restless, probing creativity on paper and canvas. We tend to ignore the fact that he often struggled. Leonardo was frequently unsure where or what his next job would be, and he was not particularly good at finishing the jobs he got. Yet through his failures and disappointments he also found a path to a different measure of success. Gradually he transformed himself from a young man of seemingly few prospects into an accomplished and seemingly indefinable man of wisdom and ability who set the standard for others.

Fig. 1.

Da Vinci’s Demons © 2014 Tonto Films and Television, Limited. All Rights Reserved. Image courtesy of STARZ Entertainment, LLC.

Much as the current economy pushes people to think outside the box—searching for new kinds of jobs that are not defined by traditional career paths, pursuing many different things, and at times inventing new careers in the process—we might take inspiration from the fact that Leonardo mostly was not employed in what he was trained to do. Professionally, he was a painter. To get his bona fide credentials he paid his “union dues,” Renaissance style, with a lengthy, low paying apprenticeship with Andrea del Verrocchio. The Florentine painters’ guild accepted him into its ranks; long after he achieved fame elsewhere, they reminded him that he was no longer a member in good standing when he returned to his native city. Little success resulted directly from this early investment in a particular profession.

Instead, Leonardo recognized that the better path to employment was to parlay his skills into a series of jobs for his times. He became an engineer who also painted, sculpted, and studied. No degree was required. Leonardo’s notebooks, filled with drawings of fantastic and seemingly improbable but seductive inventions, became his resumé, buttressed by bold claims that proclaimed his ability to do great, useful and beautiful things. Leonardo drew and talked his way into numerous places. Ultimately he left 15th-century Florence behind for industrial, warmongering Milan, where he felt his talents were better appreciated. Throughout his entire life he migrated from one place to another in search of opportunities, always mindful of the uncertainties and instability of his world. At one point, he even inquired about the possibility of building a bridge to span the Golden Horn. Apparently, the Sultan did not encourage Leonardo to come to Istanbul.

The Renaissance job market was yet another reason why Leonardo continued to expand his mind, scribbled incessantly and engaged in all sorts of self-improvement projects. It also didn’t hurt that Leonardo played the lute and was a really good Renaissance party planner. You just never know when a forgotten skill or two might unexpectedly open another door.

Commentary by Leonardo Co-Editor David Carrier

Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) has had very good press—his life and art have inspired the most varied commentary by major scholars. Giorgio’s Vasari’s Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects (1550) gives him...