Perhaps - not quite the same - but not wrong in Leonardo's case. Just a suggestion; I've had just the same problem today.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 mins (2008-10-28 15:13:31 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

This is the only way I could think of getting around 'thinker of the human/humanity/human condition' which unfortunately does not make sense.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 33 mins (2008-10-28 15:41:23 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

"Leonardo Da Vinci: Humanist and Anatomy Pioneer

Paper Summary:

This paper provides a look at Da Vinci's humanistic work during the late Middle Ages in Europe that brought the study of anatomy into existence. Though outlawed by the Catholic Church, dissection gave Da Vinci the ability to sketch the human body inside and out.

From the Paper:

"During the Renaissance, a movement towards humanism brought anatomy from nonexistence to theory to science. Leonardo Da Vinci was a humanist who was a part of the scientific revolution during the 15th and 16th centuries and studied medicine, in addition to mathematics, physics, art, etc. When the shift to realism became important in art, anatomy and the study of the physical body was immensely important to artists in Europe. Da Vinci rebelled against the church to take the first step in portraying the body as how it is, which is important to humanism because it focuses on the physical human body."

http://www.academon.com/lib/paper/57980.html

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 42 mins (2008-10-28 15:50:57 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

The works of the four great masters, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello set the standard for Renaissance art. Each of these men were a student of humanism, and their works reflect the ideals of the time, especially focus on the individual. Leonardo’s most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, does not portray a famous queen or religious figure (that we know of); she is a simple woman, wearing a simple smile.

http://weuropeanhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/humanism

Renaissance humanism saw no mutually exclusive polarities between the sciences and the arts, and Leonardo's studies in science and engineering are as impressive and innovative as his artistic work, recorded in notebooks comprising some 13,000 pages of notes and drawings, which fuse art and natural philosophy (the forerunner of modern science). These notes were made and maintained daily throughout Leonardo's life and travels, as he made continual observations of the world around him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci

Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. His Last Supper (1495–98) and Mona Lisa (c. 1503–06) are among the most widely popular and influential paintings of the Renaissance. His notebooks reveal a spirit of scientific inquiry and a mechanical inventiveness that were centuries ahead of their time.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/336408/Leonardo-da...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 19 hrs (2008-10-29 10:32:46 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

Thanks for the points, French Foodie - sometimes the context just isn't there, is it?