Ken Burns’ documentary focuses on Leonardo da Vinci

PHILADELPHIA — Famed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns didn’t plan to pursue a film on Leonardo da Vinci, his first non-American subject. But he was drawn to the subject, thanks in part to the master painter’s similarities to Benjamin Franklin.

Franklin was the focus of a Burns documentary in 2022, for which Burns interviewed an old friend, biographer Walter Isaacson, who had also written about Leonardo. One night over dinner in Washington, D.C., following the film’s premiere, Isaacson pestered the filmmaker to consider Leonardo da Vinci for his next project by drawing comparisons to Franklin. “I said, ‘Walter, I just do American stuff,’” Burns recalled. “He said, ‘Oh, they’re both scientists, they’re both artists, they’re both the most captivating figures of their age.’”

Burns wasn’t entirely convinced, but when he mentioned the idea to his longtime collaborators, his daughter Sarah Burns and son-in-law David McMahon, they immediately said yes.

“So I just figured this old dog could be taught new tricks,” Burns said.

The couple moved to Florence with their kids for a year to research and interview experts, resulting in the two-part, four-hour documentary “ Leonardo da Vinci,” co-directed by both of the Burnses and McMahon, that premiered this week on PBS.

The film charts Leonardo’s impressive and unlikely life, from his origins as a child born out of wedlock in 1452 to his international fame as one of the greatest painters and thinkers of all time. Beyond his groundbreaking approach to art, Leonardo was a true Renaissance man well-versed in science, engineering, philosophy, theater and math, among other fields.

His life is still somewhat of a mystery as biographical information about him remains scant — we know his life and death, his parentage, where he worked in Italy and France, and that he was gay, experts say. Much contemporary analysis of Leonardo relies on his works, many of which were unpublished and unfinished.

“We don’t know much about him. For [a] biography, that would normally be the kiss of death, but it’s not,” Burns said. “Into that vacuum you get to put in, not the ticktock and the tabloid, but the exploration of what his mind was about.”

Using shots of lush landscapes, references to scientific wonders, and close-ups of nature, Burns’ “Leonardo da Vinci” provides a departure from his playbook of archived footage to deliver a lyrical film that spotlights the universal and timeless impact of Leonardo’s surprisingly modern thinking.

Burns said if Leonardo were alive today, he would likely be a filmmaker (in addition to his many talents) because his paintings capture immense movement and don’t feel “frozen” like two-dimensional works often do.

Leonardo’s artistic revolution lies in the details, like deciding to paint women not in profile, as was tradition, but with the subject looking directly at the viewer. That choice — which today we would consider feminist — is part of the wonder that is the “Mona Lisa.” Before he painted her, though, he shocked the Italian art world at age 21 with a portrait of 16-year-old Ginevra de’ Benci. She does not hide behind modesty or detached beauty as was typical for women of that era; her gaze is startlingly forthright. She looks “right at you,” said Burns, “and it’s not a pleasant exchange. It’s a complicated, deep one.”

That agency and the movement in Ginevra’s eyes provide a glimpse into the young artist’s progressive thinking that later became the foundation for “Mona Lisa.” Breaking down these portraits as well as his inventions and prolific notebooks, the film highlights why Leonardo’s work continues to inspire people today, from art historians to filmmakers to engineers.

As for Burns, he says Leonardo’s greatest lesson is to embrace curiosity. “He’s the most modern person I’ve ever come across. He’s also the most curious,” he said.