Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519, (Old Style) was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. His genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination".[1] He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.[2] According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, the man himself mysterious and remote".[1] Marco Rosci states that while there is much speculation about Leonardo, his vision of the world is essentially logical rather than mysterious, and that the empirical methods he employed were unusual for his time.[3]
Leonardo’s Contributions
Leonardo da Vinci was famous for his designs, art, cartography, geology, and studies. Leonardo's designs later helped us to invent things like the tank, parachute, helicopter and many other things. He was also a very talented artist. Most of his pictures and paintings are in art galleries and museums. One of his most known paintings is the Mona Lisa. He made many maps of many different places. He was also interested in geology. He studied many different things, including math, reading, and writing backwards. People think he wrote backwards because he didn't want to smear the ink, but others thought he didn't want people to steal his ideas.