Leonardo da Vinci never went to school. He was a self-taught man. I think that Leonardo had a kind of autistic condition. From a very early age his works show a recognition and understanding of the basic laws of physics concerning time and space, a subject little known until then. Leonardo’s ideas, expressed in his backward writing, and looking like a secret code, were almost illegible to most readers. The omnipotent Roman Catholic Church at that time could easily consider this as an act of heresy. To suggest that Leonardo had mystic powers and belonged to this or that secret organization doesn’t do justice to the creative genius of this man.

1. LEONARDO THE LAST YEARS
A Very Special Child
by Ton Pascal
Leonardo da Vinci never went to school. He didn’t have
private tutors. He was a self-taught man. Personally I
think that Leonardo had a kind of autistic condition.
From a very early age his works show a recognition and
understanding of the basic laws of physics concerning
time and space, a subject little known until then. When
he thought about an issue, his mind gave him the
immediate solution to the problem. Leonardo’s ideas,
expressed in his backward writing, and looking like a
secret code, were almost illegible to most readers. At
that time, a time when the Roman Catholic Church was
the only recognized accepted source and ruling body of
the world’s knowledge and secrets, this could easily be considered an act of heresy.
The Church was the arbiter and had the final word in any subject, be it scientific,
social, and of course on anything they considered to be a religious matter.
Being illegitimate, Leonardo was certainly bullied and looked down upon by other
children and their parents. But, despite his social and birth conditions, the well
mannered Leonardo seemed driven to prove that everyone was wrong, and that he
was an intelligent and noble gentleman. Freud also hinted on this same subject. He
attributed Leonardo's development, as an artist and scientist, to the circumstances of
his illegitimate birth.
To suggest that Leonardo had mystic powers and
belonged to this or that secret organization, or that his
writings are nothing but riddles and prophesies doesn’t
do justice to the creative genius of this man. Leonardo
wrote what came to his mind, describing in detail what
he saw already accomplished. As someone with autism
may do, Leonardo saw in his mind the object he had
created as fully operational, long before he put the quill
or chalk to the paper. Most of the time, different,
unrelated thoughts succeeded at a fast pace which he
had difficulty in
controlling. On top
of this, his social
standing didn’t allow him to join groups or
associations where the patrons were of a higher
and noble class. Leonardo, even when famous,
was nevertheless an Artisan and lived like a
gypsy, moving often from one place to another.
He had no home and hardly had time to finish his
commissions, never mind traveling back and forth to attend secret meetings.
TPD Inc. 103 Avenue Rd. Suite 810, Toronto, ON, M5R 2G9 Canada.
Web site: www.leonardo-tly.com email: tonpascal@leonardo-tly.com
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2. LEONARDO THE LAST YEARS
A little known fact about Leonardo is that he had a very impatient nature and disliked
physical or manual labor, and this served as a creative conduit for his busy mind. The
simple act of waiting for things to happen, like oil or clay to dry or distances to travel,
set his mind in motion to find an easier way to achieve these tasks. And he often
found them.
Leonardo always maintained that to him, as an artist, the most important act is the
moment of the artistic assignment’s conception. To him, completing the actual task
was nothing more than manual labor. He often argued that sculpture was boring work
and below creative standards because it
only required good manual dexterity, while
painting was way up (on his scale), closer
to the divine as it was a creative process
and therefore a gift from God. Even when
he worked for the crazy Cesare Borgia in
1502, designing new fortification walls and
weapons, he only did the sketches and
explained the concept to the tyrant’s
masters who would then build them while
Leonardo moved on to other fancy creations.
When Leonardo moved back to Florence in 1503, he became the most sought after
painter in the town. He would create a very detailed cartoon of the work
commissioned and then one of his assistants would finish the painting. For the most
part this was due to the incredible amount of personal commissions. Of course he
supervised the works in progress constantly, and added his personal touches here
and there to complete his vision.
Paintings like the “Mona Lisa”, “The Virgin with The Child and St. Anne”, and the “St,
John The Baptist” were different. He had an emotional attachment to these paintings.
Each one of them told a personal story and related to a
challenging experience of his past. “The Virgin” was
his ‘coming out’ from the dark cave into a world of
sensuality and secrets. The “Mona Lisa” was his
perception of this world imposed on him by his birth
father. The “Saint John”, his favorite, was his first love
and torment of his life. For decades he used them as
his own experiment into new ways of changing time
and space. New colors, symbols, dreams and everyday
notes were added to them over the decades in an
attempt to condition and bring his past to life. The
“Mona Lisa” painting, besides the many symbols added
here and there, has areas with as many as seventy-
three layers of almost transparent paint giving the
viewer a sense of depth, which is almost three-dimensional.
That is the Leonardo you'll see in “Leonardo, The Last Years”.
Ton Pascal
TPD Inc. 103 Avenue Rd. Suite 810, Toronto, ON, M5R 2G9 Canada.
Web site: www.leonardo-tly.com email: tonpascal@leonardo-tly.com
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3. LEONARDO THE LAST YEARS
Ton Pascal is a writer, designer of all things and artist. He also loves history and is an avid
reader, so it is very natural that his latest book is a time leap into the 16th century.
LEONARDO THE LAST YEARS starts in 1516 and spans three and a half years of Leonardo
da Vinci’s life. It is a work of fiction so tightly woven with documented historical facts that it
appears seamless. It shows a Leonardo, not only as a brilliant mind, but also as a gentle man
who did so while fighting the demons of his past that threatened to destroy him.
Web Site- http://www.leonardo-tly.com/
Book- http://amzn.to/HhNUKN
Video YouTube - http://bit.ly/Hf7qc2
TPD Inc. 103 Avenue Rd. Suite 810, Toronto, ON, M5R 2G9 Canada.
Web site: www.leonardo-tly.com email: tonpascal@leonardo-tly.com
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