While the name Leonardo da Vinci may be well known, the depth of his imagination is not easily understood.
"The first thing that became clear to me was how little about him I actually knew," David McMahon told WBFO during a recent visit. That understanding changed as the producer, writer and director explored 6,000 pages of notes left behind by the Italian painter, scientist and thinker. PBS audiences can view the results when "Leonardo da Vinci" airs November 18-19.
"Everything he was thinking and working on he put in these notebooks," said McMahon who shares director and producer credits with Ken and Sarah Burns. He and Sarah Burns co-wrote the two-part, four-hour production.
"The notebooks were really toward creating treatises that he could publish. He wanted to be thought of as an intellectual, not necessarily just a painter."
McMahon says the notebooks include "100,000 different sketches, preparatory studies, geometric proofs. The occasional grocery list."
Because he was born out wedlock, Leonardo did not receive a classical education.
"So, instead, he spends a lot of time in his youth in nature. He's deeply curious. I think that's his defining trait," McMahon explained.
"We wanted to capture this visually so we did some things that we've never done in a Ken Burns' film before: we started splitting the screen." While one panel may display a da Vinci drawing, a second would have a corresponding image found in nature and a third might show "some archival film from the 20th century that was some kind of representation of how that idea might have evolved."
For McMahon, his visit to Buffalo was also a homecoming. "I was raised in Clarence. It was great place to grow up."
His other producer credits include "The Central Park Five," "Jackie Robinson" and "Muhammad Ali." While he declined to share information on future projects, McMahon was clearly pleased to be telling the story of Leonardo da Vinci.
"You can see how he's got roots in the ancient past. He's very much a guy of his present and yet he seems as though he has a foot on Mars with that incredible imagination."
