---
node: leonardo_da_vinci
type: person
slug: leonardo_da_vinci
title: "Leonardo da Vinci"
lead: "Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath, the archetypal Renaissance man, at once painter, engineer, and inventor."
published: 2026-07-11
updated: 2026-07-11
image_file: leonardo_da_vinci.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_presumed_self-portrait_-_WGA12798.jpg"
image_author: "Leonardo da Vinci"
image_license: "Public domain"
---

## Who they were

Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath — a painter, engineer, and inventor. He is the archetypal Renaissance man.

## What they did

He painted the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, and he filled notebooks with studies of anatomy, machines, water, and flight far ahead of his time. He worked in Florence, Milan, Rome, and finally France.

## Legacy

A handful of his finished paintings became among the most famous in the world, and his notebooks reveal a scientific curiosity centuries ahead of his age. He embodies the Renaissance union of art and science.