Ken Burns turns his lens on ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ for PBS

Ken Burns is dramatically changing direction with his monumental two-part PBS “Leonardo da Vinci” series: It is the first ever non-American subject he’s tackled.

The Italian Renaissance master, whose Mona Lisa in the Louvre is easily the world’s most famous painting, was a multi-disciplinary titan in his own time and, still, in ours.

Burns, 70, considers him not just among the most important but the most important person of the millennium.

It all began, he said in a phone interview, while he was working on his Benjamin Franklin series.

“My friend Walter Isaacson, a biographer of Franklin, was urging me to consider doing a film on another subject that he had done, Leonardo da Vinci. I waved him off, saying, I only do American projects.

“Afterwards, in a conversation with my daughter Sarah Burns and son in law David McMahon — we’ve collaborated on films like ‘The Central Park Five’ and ‘Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali’ — I told them Walter was pushing for Leonardo. They thought it was a great idea — and helped this old dog learn new tricks.”

Burns and McMahon who share credit with Burns, moved to Florence for a year. “They did the lion’s share of location work, the writing, editing, research and stuff like that.”

Burns remains in awe of all that the ever curious da Vinci did.

“He’s an exhilarating figure, inspiring. He’s obviously the most curious man alive and, I think in some ways, the most modern.

“He’s somebody that we were privileged to get to know as much as we could know in terms of his personal life. His ability to ask the central questions of the human project — what is our place in the universe? — and to ask them in every way, shape or form!

“To explore water dynamics, the flight of birds. Botany, anatomy, mathematics, engineering and military stuff! He’s got the first overhead drawing of an aerial view — without the benefit of seeing it. He has no microscope and no telescope.

“Also, he’s the greatest painter and the painter of the most famous painting on Earth, which is deservedly so.”

Was Leonardo, with a lifelong male partner, gay?

“Obviously the main thing we wish to have as human beings is tolerance for one another,” Burns answered. “I wouldn’t say that he was openly gay in that way. It was discovered because of the arrest” – of four men, that included da Vinci, for homosexuality. “It was a period in which homosexuality was both tolerated and not tolerated. Just like our own times.

“There’s not much commentary about that. But we know he’s got a household of young men, male companions, in his life.”

“Leonardo da Vinci” airs in two parts on PBS Nov.18 and Nov. 19