kcovia

Do you really want to work for someone who thinks getting to the office 5 minutes earlier is more important than your child?

Nietzsche was co-opted by his sister (who was a proto-National Socialist) and was strongly misinterpreted. In fact, Nietzsche was strongly anti-German nationalism and anti-Anti-Semitic, which lead to a fallout with his idol, Wagner.

It may have been smaller, no doubt, but this statement is not correct:

But in the 1400s, just being an artist is a huge enough accomplishment that people are going to know who you are.

Artists in da Vinci's day were more akin to craftsmen. Da Vinci himself was basically raised in an artist's workshop (by Andrea del Verrocchio) and worked alongside dozens of other students on their master's projects. This is in stark contrast to today's artists, who are basically expected to be the sole creative genius (barring people like Damien Hirst, of course, who is known to use assistants.)

Actually, he wrote this employment letter in 1482, before he made anything of serious artistic importance. He may have been somewhat known in the artistic community, but he was by no means very well known.