“People talk to people who perceive nothing, who have open eyes and see nothing; they shall talk to them and receive no answer; they shall adore those who have ears and hear nothing; they shall burn lamps for those who do not see.”

Italian polymath of the High Renaissance

Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance, active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. Born Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, he is best known simply as Leonardo. His reputation first rested on painting, but his notebooks made him famous in a broader sense. In them, he set down drawings and notes on subjects ranging from anatomy and astronomy to botany, cartography, painting, and palaeontology. He is widely regarded as a genius who embodied the Renaissance humanist ideal, and his work helped shape European art.