Leonardo da Vinci

1452 – 1519

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance whose work as a painter, draftsman, engineer, anatomist, and architect made him an emblem of the Renaissance ideal of the universal genius. His paintings—most famously the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and Salvator Mundi—have become among the most recognized works in the history of art. The roughly 7,000 surviving pages of his notebooks contain centuries-ahead-of-their-time studies of anatomy, hydraulics, flight, geology, and mechanical engineering.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM