Leonardo da Vinci

Legendary card · No. 1646

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519), better known as Leonardo da Vinci, 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 as a genius who epitomised the Renaissance humanist ideal, and his collective works contributed to the development of European art to an extent rivalled only by that of his younger contemporary Michelangelo. Born out of wedlock to a young peasant woman and a successful notary in (or near) Vinci in Tuscany, 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...

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