A good portion of my childhood was spent studying art. I love art, from masters like Van Gogh and Munch to Dali, I learned as much as I could. Art has always been my true love even after dropping it in exchange for the writing medium, and one major artistic influence I always looked to was Leonardo Davinci. He was a man I read as much as I could about, and I'd find anything involving him just to look at his beautiful works. Davinci was not only just an artist, he was visionary, one of the prophetic geniuses who would create plans for apparatuses like the helicopter that would later be used in modern times. So, when I was given a chance to preview "Davinci & the Code he lived by", I was ecstatic. The peak of human genius was the renaissance, a time where brilliance and creativity were cradled and influenced and spawned some of the great man made artistic masterpieces we'll ever know. This new documentary sheds new light on the artist, and invariably sheds new light on one of my creative influences. Many people will be surprised to learn DaVinci was considered a bastard child, and a pariah, as many geniuses are, and even his name bears no true significance to his family since DaVinci means only "From Vinci".

Davinci was less an artist and more a sheer innovator. He was an engineer, a mechanic, a sculptor, a military strategist, a political partner, and helped lay the groundwork for aero-dynamics. But DaVinci was also immensely grandiose in his ideas for machines and statues, always thinking big and humongous, and presented a fascination with weapons of war, and perhaps helped revolutionize weapons of (potential) mass destruction. He didn't want to build these weapons as a sense of allegiance to his country, but built them because he just wanted to test his limits.

The interviewees theorize (One of the more interesting hypotheses about DaVinci presented) that perhaps Davinci had ADD or OCD which would account for his inability to finish any of his paintings (i.e. Mona Lisa) which led to many conflicts from people who hired him to finish a project. Davinci was faceted for many things, ambidextrous, and humble, he always saw vision in his subjects and presented them with warts and all. Davinci, often a friend to royalty became the victim of politics and war serving as a martyr with his grand art becoming the victim of warfare, and his work was in vain many times as presented with his disastrous experiment with the original painting of The Last Supper. Also explained is Davinci's bitter rivalry with the younger and arguably more talented artist Michelangelo whose inevitable masterpieces made Davinci feel threatened.

The documentary sheds little light on the Mona Lisa and the mystery behind it and on who she may have been if she existed at all. One very unnecessary addition toward the adding of Davinci's legend is the often liberal use of "code" that is an obvious reference to "The DaVinci Code" book. Constantly the term is thrown about. "He would not break his code", or "his code demanded he continue". Alright, we get it, you're referencing the book, can we get to the actual material without the gimmicks? Regardless, "Davinci & The Code he lived by" examines the wonder of the artist and his unending fascination with nature, machines, and his subjects.

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