One of the most accomplished human beings who ever lived, Leonardo remains the quintessential Renaissance genius. Creator of the world's most famous painting, this scientist,
artist, philosopher, inventor, builder, and mechanic epitomized the great flowering of human consciousness that marks his era. And yet, so wide-ranging and prolific were his
interests that he brought hardly any major undertaking to a final end.
Leonardo also advanced numerous artistic techniques, and implicated a complex psychology into his paintings of The Last Supper and the enigmatic La Gioconda, or Mona
Lisa. Famous horseman, rival to Michelangelo, military engineer to the Borgias, he died in 1519 in a chateau given to him by Francis I, King of France. Not bad for the illegitimate son
of a Florentine notary.
