history

Sure, he's the main source of the "reneissance man" as idiom for someone of extensive talents, interests and knowledge.

I meant that there would be no fucking chance to be allowed some far fetched fantasies while in work, burgie buys slave and burgie requires every last ounce of labour, if it's cocksucking painting, then it's gonna be cocksucking painting. And btw da Vinci was also treated the same way and he was considered a top artist even during his life (and iirc about his engineering the invention actually realised were multibarreled guns and those were flop because actual gunmaking was nowhere near the required level). Most other artists under patronate were even less fortunate, just for some reason entire dynamic got romanticised later.

Good that this take in OP is at least written from perspective of the patron, which makes it mere mildly disgusting power fantasy. Every actual artist thinking like that really deserve to have grok permanently wired to their brain.

Da Vinci was also a skilled Theater set builder. He was contracted to do festivals and religious holidays. He was also hot as fuck apparently, which had its perks.