Leonardo da Vinci

Born out of wedlock near Vinci Italy in 1452, Leonardo da Vinci was educated in Florence by Italian sculptor and painter Andrea del Verrocchio, beginning his storied career in Florence before moving to Milan under the patronage of Ludovico Sforza.

Renaissance Man

While Leonardo’s fame was first celebrated by his genius as a painter, he soon proved to be the ultimate polymath of the Italian High Renaissance, where he displayed his talents as a draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor and architect.

He also became known for his notebooks, where he made countless drawings and observations, on subjects as far afield as anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, paleontology and human flight. Leonardo’s seemingly unbounded curiosity epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal, while many art historians believe his collective works were matched only by his younger contemporary, Michelangelo.

What did Leonardo Da Vinci Invent?

Over the course of his hyper-productive lifetime, Leonardo conceptualized armored fighting vehicles, flying machines, an adding machine, the catamaran sailboat and concentrated solar power, and while most of his concept designs were never constructed, some of his lesser inventions were manufactured to little fanfare, including an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire.

He also made groundbreaking discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, optics, geology and hydrodynamics, although his decision not to publish his findings resulted in little to no direct influence in each of his fields of study. Since his death in 1519, art historians and laymen alike have admired his achievements and diverse interests, cementing Leonardo da Vinci as one of the greatest painters in the history of art.

While the majority of his works have been lost since his passing—less than 25 attributed major works exist today—his most admired paintings include The Last Supper, his Vitruvian Man drawing and his magnum opus, Mona Lisa, which is visited by more than 8 million people annually. In 2017, his painting entitled Salvator Mundi was sold for over $450 million, setting a new record for the most expensive painting ever sold at auction, making Leonardo da Vinci one of the greatest artistic geniuses in the history of modern man.