Not only did he possess artistic talent and creativity, but Leonardo da Vinci also mastered the techniques of perfumery and created many fragrances himself.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) was an Italian painter, sculptor, architect, musician, physician, engineer, anatomist, inventor, and natural philosopher of the Renaissance. However, Leonardo had a lesser-known passion for perfume. According to Dr. Caro Verbeek, an art and fragrance historian working at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, during da Vinci’s time, perfume was an essential part of daily life.
Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci. (Photo: The Economist).
For a Renaissance scientist like da Vinci, creating perfume was a natural extension of his other studies. “Da Vinci was fascinated by all forms of life, including animals and plants. He studied them meticulously, not only drawing but also capturing their scents. He also possessed equipment to extract perfumes. Innately curious or experimentally inclined, he surely began to create his own fragrances,” Verbeek explains.
Similar to many of his other studies, da Vinci’s exploration of perfume was both synthetic and creative. He understood scent extraction techniques, such as distillation in liquid alcohol, a method of using liquid to absorb scents from plants. Additionally, he was knowledgeable about the cold extraction technique that was quite modern for that time. In this process, delicate flowers were placed in animal fat to absorb essential oils.
According to Verbeek, da Vinci was not the only painter-perfumer of his time. Renaissance artists often brought their own materials for their paintings, including oil paints. Some materials used in painting, such as tree resin, were also utilized in perfumery. Thus, da Vinci was more familiar with and had easier access to these products. Recent analyses have shown that Donna Nuda, a painting completed by one of da Vinci’s students under his supervision, has a scent reminiscent of “a forest after rain.” Similarly, da Vinci’s painting Lady with an Ermine also has a pleasant aroma similar to that of a history museum, particularly the scent of walnut wood, according to Tomasz Sawoszczuk, a research team leader at Kraków University of Economics.
However, very few people are aware of da Vinci’s passion for perfume because, according to earlier Western beliefs, sight and hearing were considered the senses that could make a person wise and accumulate knowledge. In contrast, the sense of smell was viewed as a lesser sense, associated with childhood, animals, primitiveness, and lacking intellectual value. As a result, da Vinci’s enthusiasm for perfume has been overshadowed by his artistic talents and scientific achievements.
