LEONARDO DA VINCI

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci(Italian: [leoˈnardo di ˌsɛr ˈpjɛːro da (v)ˈvintʃi]), more commonly Leonardo da Vincior simply Leonardo(15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519), was an Italian polymath whose areas of interest included invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography. He has been variously called the father of palaeontology, ichnology, and architecture, and is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. Sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter and tank, he epitomised the Renaissance humanistideal. Many historians and scholars regard Leonardo as the prime exemplar of the "Universal Genius" or "Renaissance Man", an individual of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination". According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent in recorded history, and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, while the man himself mysterious and remote".Marco Rosci notes that while there is much speculation regarding his life and personality, his view of the world was logical rather than mysterious, and that the empirical methods he employed were unorthodox for his time. Bornout of wedlockto anotary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman, Caterina, in Vinciin the region of Florence, Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter Andrea del Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service ofLudovico il Moroin Milan. He later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice, and he spent his last years in France at the home awarded to him by FrancisI of France.Leonardo was, and is, renowned primarily as a painter. Among his works, theMona Lisais the most famous and most parodied portrait andThe Last Supperthe most reproduced religious painting of all time. Leonardo's drawing of the Vitruvian Manis also regarded as acultural icon, being reproduced on items as varied as the euro coin, textbooks, and T-shirts. Perhaps fifteenof his paintings have survived.[nb 1]Nevertheless, these few works, together with his notebooks, which contain drawings, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting, compose a contribution to later generations of artists rivalled only by that of his contemporary, Michelangelo.Leonardo is revered forhis technological ingenuity. He conceptualised flying machines, a type ofarmoured fighting vehicle,concentrated solar power, anadding machine,and the double hull. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or even feasible during his lifetime, as the modern scientific approaches to metallurgy and engineering were only in their infancy during the Renaissance. Some of his smaller inventions, however, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strengthof wire, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded. A number of Leonardo's most practical inventions are nowadays displayed as working models at the Museum of Vinci. He made substantial discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, geology,optics, andhydrodynamics, but he did not publish his findings and they had no direct influence on later science.

Today, Leonardo is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived. Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, The Vitruvian Man, Lady with an Ermine are most famous creations of da Vinci.