Da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (1452 – 1519), more commonly Leonardo da Vinci, was an Italian polymath of the Renaissance whose areas of interest included invention, drawing, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography. He has been called the father of ichnology, and he is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. The Mona Lisa is the most famous of his works and the most popular portrait ever made. The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time and his Vitruvian Man drawing is regarded as a cultural icon as well. Perhaps 15 of his paintings have survived. 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 Leonardo's contemporary Michelangelo.

Periods: High Renaissance, Early renaissance, Renaissance, Italian Renaissance, Florentine painting.