Leonardo da vinci biography britannica school

Italian Renaissance polymath (1452–1519)

"Da Vinci" redirects here. For other uses, see Da Vinci (disambiguation) and Leonardo da Vinci (disambiguation).

In this Renaissance Florentine name, the name da Vinci is an indicator of birthplace, not a family name; the person is properly referred to by the given name, Leonardo.

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci^[b] (15 April 1452 – 2 May 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 has also become 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 have been a genius who epitomised the Renaissance humanist ideal, and his collective works comprise a contribution to later generations of