Leonardo da Vinci (2024–2024)
pbs documentaries
Leonardo da Vinci highlights
Plot
This film tells the story of Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, best known as Leonardo da Vinci, a fifteenth-century Italian polymath of soaring imagination and profound intellect, who left behind artistic works of staggering beauty and detailed sketches of futuristic contraptions of warfare and flight marveled at today for their technical ingenuity and foresight.From his birth out of wedlock to a notary and peasant woman and apprenticeship to a distinguished Florentine painter to his days as a military architect, cartographer, sculptor, and muralist for hire, the film offers an intimate portrait of a singular visionary whose Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and The Vitruvian Man are among the most celebrated works known to man, but whose artistic endeavors sometimes seemed an afterthought to his pursuits in science and engineering.Set against a rich and dynamic backdrop of Renaissance Italy, at a time of skepticism and free-thinking, regional war, and religious upheaval, Leonardo da Vinci brings Leonardo and his towering achievements to life through his voluminous personal notebooks, primary and secondary accounts of his life and times, and on-camera interviews with modern scholars, artists, engineers, inventors, and admirers.Directed and produced by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon, written by David McMahon and Sarah Burns, and executive produced by Ken Burns, Leonardo da Vinci will broadcast November 18-19, 2024, on PBS (4 hours).
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Highest-rated episodes all ranked
- 01
The Disciple of ExperienceLeonardo da Vinci grows up in a Tuscan village surrounded by nature, then moves to Florence, where the Renaissance is in full bloom, to apprentice as an artist and craftsman. He shows extraordinary talent but at times struggles to finish commissions. Later, in Milan, he joins Duke Sforza’s court, begins writing treatises, and paints a monumental fresco depicting the Last Supper. - 02
Painter-GodLeonardo works as a military engineer, designs fanciful flying machines, studies light and shadow, investigates gravity, dissects cadavers, and pens treatises on a vast array of subjects, all while seeking the perfect patron. In Florence, Milan, Rome and finally France, he pours the sum of his scientific and artistic knowledge into a portrait that would become the most famous painting on earth.
Episodes by season
Season01
- S01E01The Disciple of ExperienceNovember 18, 2024Leonardo da Vinci grows up in a Tuscan village surrounded by nature, then moves to Florence, where the Renaissance is in full bloom, to appr
- S01E02Painter-GodNovember 19, 2024Leonardo works as a military engineer, designs fanciful flying machines, studies light and shadow, investigates gravity, dissects cadavers,
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