LOS ANGELES — When you think of Leonardo da Vinci, you probably think of his masterpiece, the “Mona Lisa,” but he didn’t think of himself as only an artist, he was also an accomplished scientist.

LA Times Today got a look inside a new exhibition at the California Science Center that puts his scientific pursuits front and center. 

The exhibition is organized by subject, with galleries on flight, musical instruments, art, engineering and interactive exhibits.

Dr. Diane Perlov, senior vice president of special projects at the museum, discussed da Vinci’s work. 

“He was never able to publish his work. He had thousands and thousands of notebooks about his scientific experiments. We know he intended to publish his work, but he was just experimenting and experiment and working all the time that he never got around to it before he died at the age of 67. In Leonardo’s era, the way he made a living was he had patrons, and these were noblemen that wanted Leonardo in their orbit. So he would stay on their estate and paint for them. They recognized the genius of Leonardo as an artist. And some of them also recognized his intelligence as an engineer,” Perlov said. 

Da Vinci invented several machines involving flight. His mechanical eagle, aerial screw, and other flying machines are on display.

Perlov spoke about what made da Vinci unique among his peers, and why his inventions endure even though many of them did not work.

“He was recognized during his time as being a genius of art and being very advanced. Nobody in this era understood the order of nature like Leonardo did. Nobody investigated nature the way Leonardo did, and nobody paints his nature as realistically as Leonardo did. He observed nature intensely. He took copious notes. He experimented. And those are all the core elements of the scientific method. [He did it] 100 years before the scientific method was codified. Leonardo was really one of a kind,” he said.

Due to popular demand, the Da Vinci exhibition has been extended through Jan. 15, 2025.

For information and tickets, visit the California Science Center website.

Watch the full video above.

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