Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (1452–1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on his achievements as a painter, he also became known for his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on a variety of subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting, and palaeontology. Leonardo is widely regarded to be a genius who epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal, and his collective works compose a contribution to later generations of artists matched only by that of his younger contemporary, Michelangelo.
Born out of wedlock to a successful notary and a lower-class woman in, or near, Vinci, he was educated in Florence by the Italian painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. He began his career in the city, but then spent much time in the service of Ludovico Sforza in Milan. Later, he worked in Florence and Milan again, as well as briefly in Rome, all while attracting a large following of imitators and students. Upon the invitation of Francis I, he spent his last three years in France, where he died in 1519.
Among the qualities that make Leonardo’s work unique are his innovative techniques for laying on the paint, his detailed knowledge of anatomy, light, botany and geology, his interest in physiognomy and the way humans register emotion in expression and gesture, his innovative use of the human form in figurative composition, and his use of subtle gradation of tone. All these qualities come together in his most famous painted works, the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and the Virgin of the Rocks. Leonardo’s drawings, such as the Vitruvian Man, are also iconic and demonstrate his deep interest in the proportions of the human body and the natural world.