According to Freud, "man's thirst for knowledge comes from his desire to master the world around him." During the Renaissance, magical Art became a unique means to achieve this, by combining with knowledge.
Thus, the scholar capable of practicing magic was at the same time a philosopher who put his art at the service of science.
Thus, the Renaissance was to emerge from its rut of heresy and diabolism.
1- Renaissance and Magic.
Magic and science would henceforth be reconcilable and capable of providing a feeling of omnipotence, in thought as well as in action.
Traditional education no longer seemed capable of providing the tools to understand reality and confront its problems. Had religion failed to find Paradise by building the spires of cathedrals?
Had science failed, too, by traveling the world to find a Paradise on Earth? What if Paradise was within Man? This is what Humanism claims.
People then turned to other, more magical approaches, and began to cultivate "Nous," this intuitive faculty of man.
"Nous" and magic were thus united in the quest for another form of knowledge: to interact directly with the world, and to change human destiny.
The scholar believed that magic would make it possible to obtain such effects. The mage thus substituted himself, through his art, for God: magical thought conferred upon him the power to act on things and to modify them at will. This was a revolution.
As we know, the Renaissance takes its name from this furious desire to put an end to medieval obscurantism, obsessed with the fear of Hell and the search for a celestial Paradise.
It was by rejecting the Middle Ages that the Renaissance would throw itself into the adoration of an idealized Antiquity.
In the midst of this emulation, artists would suddenly change their status, recognized as true creators, henceforth signing their works, and distinguishing themselves from artisans.
2- Leonardo da Vinci, Magician.
One of the most emblematic of these artists was, of course, Leonardo da Vinci, a creative genius with countless talents; painter, wit, sculptor, architect, urban planner, botanist, musician, poet, philosopher, military inventor, engineer, writer, musician, anatomist, and magician!
In short, an absolute, free, unclassifiable, avant-garde and iconoclastic artist, who did not hesitate to criticize the official discourse of the Church in works that caused a scandal.
It was by delving, like others, into the ancient period that Leonardo da Vinci would rediscover theater automata and all the machinery described in "De Architectura" by Marcus Vitruvius (1st century BC), for example.
In 1490, for the marriage of Galeazzo Visconti to Isabella of Aragon, Da Vinci presented illusion acts, such as mirror tricks or the appearance of a "celestial deity in the clouds"! Another trace of his performances is found in Milan in 1493.
In 1497, magical writings are also found in his "Codex Atlanticus" or in "De Viribus Quantitatis" by his friend Luca Pacioli, which brings together over 300 mathematical trick experiments, amusing physics, card tricks—probably the first—or the first mentalism codes!
It is not very surprising that King Francis I of France, passionate about arts, letters, and magic, invited him to his court in Blois (a city which has since become inseparable from Robert-Houdin, living a few meters away!) to witness the demonstration of his automata.
We know that Da Vinci was also interested in other forms of entertainment to animate table arts: the creation of table fountains or other transformations of water into wine.
It was therefore in this effervescence that magical thinking developed.
Magic and science thus had everything to meet: starting from the same principle, moving power from God to Man.
Little by little, a "mad" and creative spirit surrounded magic.
Since then, the omnipotence of science has replaced God, reigning as magic has not: it is up to "Nous" to reawaken it in our audience!
