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Did Leonardo da Vinci Believe In God?
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Mar 28, 2025
Leonardo did not tell us what his belief in God was, but there is evidence that suggests that he held fast to many Christian ideals and beliefs. In this 5 Minutes with Art Podcast, Anita explores why there is a high probability that Leonardo da Vinci did believe in God. You can discover more by reading, Did Leonardo da Vinci Believe in God? https://anitalouiseart.com/did-leonardo-da-vinci-believe-in-god/ Support the show (https://www.buzzsprout.com/1939491/support)
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and I really think to be able to to
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paint that painting and to be able to
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make those reactions he had to study
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about Christ he had to understand
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something about Christ he had to
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understand about the apostles and that I
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believe was evidence to show that he
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understood the character of Christ
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understood about him and he understood
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about who the twel apostles were that he
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was able to show the personality of each
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of the Apostles so much so that today
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this is still one of the great
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masterpieces of the Last Supper to ever
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be
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[Music]
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created hi this is Anita from five
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minutes with art where we spend about
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five minutes a week and tell you some
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interesting stories from art today we're
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going to talk a little bit about did
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Leonardo da Vinci believe in God and
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this is kind of an interesting question
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because you know many people wonder was
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Leonardo Da Vinci the kind of person who
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believes beli in God or did he not
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believe in God you know we really don't
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know much about Leonardo D Vinci's
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personal life he left us thousands of
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writings and notebooks but not much
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about his personal life or his own
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personal beliefs so anything that I say
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here is just really supposition it is
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you know there's nothing that he wrote
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and he didn't say like I believe in God
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or I know there's a God or he didn't
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write any type of religious beliefs but
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it's just something that I believe in
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having studied a lot about him and his
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life I believe that he believed in God
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because there's so much evidence to show
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that he did first of all let's just talk
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about his painting of The Last Supper
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The Last Supper painting is a
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magnificent work of art and one of the
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things that make it so magnificent was
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his understanding about Christ and
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Christ's relationship with his Apostles
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if you look at it he had the reaction of
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what each of the apost also said at the
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exact moment when Christ told him one of
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you is going to betray me and I really
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think to be able to to paint that
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painting and to be able to make those
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reactions he had to study about Christ
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he had to understand something about
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Christ he had understand about the
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apostles and that I believe was evidence
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to show that he
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understood the character of Christ
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understood about him and he understood
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about who the twel apostles were that he
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was able to show the personality of each
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of the Apostles so much so that today
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this is still one of the great
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masterpieces of the Last Supper to ever
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be
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created there are many who wrote things
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about Leonardo Vinci and a bit about his
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character one of them was the writer
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Georgio vasari and JoJo Rari wrote a
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book about many of the Renaissance
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artists but in the book he talked about
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Leonardo D Vinci and this is what he
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said I quote his Magnificent Presence
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brought Comfort to the most troubled
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soul
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he was so persuasive that he could Bend
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other people to his will he was so
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generous that he fed all his friends
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rich or poor though his birth Venice
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received a very great gift and through
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his death is sustained an incalculable
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loss so right there we learned some
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things about Leonardo da Vinci and his
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character we learned that he was kind he
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was generous he went on to say that he
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was witty he was giving he was
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compassionate he was full of grace and I
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believe those are all words that show
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that this was a man who had a belief in
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in God I think one of the other reasons
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why he had a belief in God was because
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during the time when he lived I think
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everyone pretty much believed in God I
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mean the Catholic church was a very
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strong influence during his time people
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attend to church they had he had
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religious commissions from the church
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there's no evidence to show that he
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didn't go to church or he didn't believe
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in God in fact probably quite to the
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contrary like everyone else during his
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time he would have attended
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probably would have weekly attended
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church meetings or maybe even more than
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once a week you know Leonard D Vinci was
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he was well-liked he was highly
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respected not as just being an artist
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but his character and because of the
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fact that they wrote so highly of his
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character this also shows that he seemed
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to have been a man who had some belief
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in a religion or God he was also a very
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much of like a humanist and he he really
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believed in the the human body he
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believed in the human nature he believed
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in man you know during the Renaissance
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there was this very much this humanist
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thought where there was you know there
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where they basically believed you know
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an education that you know helped
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educate Society uh believed in both
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private and civic virtue they you know
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understood that non-religion studies
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were essential and they encouraged them
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they had an emphasis on the importance
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of observation critical analysis and
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creativity but they also believed in
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that with together with the belief in
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God so when I look at these points and I
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look at this I could see how Leonard Da
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Vinci maybe you was kind of a bit of a
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humanist but also had this belief in God
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because there's no evidence to show that
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he did not have a belief in God in fact
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to the contrary it shows a lot of
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evidence shows his writings in in a way
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show that he was religious and that he
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believed in a God or a higher being you
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know almost everyone as I mentioned
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during his lifetime would be shown or
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would at least show or would seem to be
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religious and especially to be able to
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receive you know some of these religious
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commissions which he did so my answer to
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the question is did Leonardo D Vinci
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believe in God yes I believe he did even
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though he did not write it down or
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there's no direct evidence to say where
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he directly told us that he did but
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there's lots of other evidence to show
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us that he probably did we hope you've
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enjoyed this podcast from 5 minutes with
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art if you have a chance check out our
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blog Anita Louise art and we'll put a
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link below to our blog post which talks
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a little bit more about why we believe
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Leonardo da Vinci believed in
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[Music]
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God
#Painting
#Religion & Belief