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 as a genius who epitomised the Renaissance humanist ideal,[4] and his collective works contributed to the development of European art to an extent rivalled only by that of his younger contemporary Michelangelo.