Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci's passion for the sense of vision was extreme. He writes in his Paragone, "The eye is the window of the human body through which the soul views and enjoys the beauties of the world. Because of it, the soul is content in its human prison, and without it ...

H was the father of the High Renaissance style. Da Vinci made contributions to many other fields: urban planning, mathematics, botany, astronomy, invention, history, sculpting and cartography.

• He introduced the idea of painting with aerial perspective (painting faraway objects l...

• Da Vinci's plethora of sketchbooks and journals is a window onto his scientific mind.
• Usually, Da Vinci wrote in his journals and annotated his scientific diagrams with mirror writing (i.e. writing that could be read by placing a mirror up against the page).
• He also publi...