Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero 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 paleontology. Leonardo is widely regarded to have been a genius who epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal, and his collective works comprise a contribution to later generations of artists matched only by that of his younger contemporary Michelangelo.

15 April 1452

Born on the same birth day (15 April): Avital Ronell • Christopher Brown (museum director) • Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve • George Harrison Shull • Graham Whitehead • Henry James • Ida Freund • James Kee • John L. Phillips • Kevin Lowe • Linda Perry • Martin Pedersen (cyclist) • Mike Quinn • Nawal El Moutawakel • Nicolas Chopin • Susanne Bier • Thomas Hart Benton (painter)

Born in the same month (April 1452): Frederick of Naples