Why Leonardo da Vinci continues to fascinate the modern world

Old masters rarely come more venerable (and venerated) and instantly recognisable than Leonardo da Vinci.

• Gabriele Neher
• World Economic Forum

But to think of Leonardo as an Old Master – with all its connotations of being staid, traditional, somehow old-fashioned and boring – is to do this extraordinary man a grave injustice.

There is nothing stale or predictable about a man whose personal foibles irritated and frustrated contemporaries as much as his brilliance and creativity dazzled and awed them.

One thing is for sure: whatever Leonardo was, old and boring he was not.

May 2 2019 marks the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death in Amboise in France, and this milestone is celebrated in flurry of activity including – in the UK – a…