Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo is the archetypal Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, engineer, anatomist and inventor. He trained in Verrocchio's workshop in Florence and later served the Duke of Milan, the papal court and the King of France.

Fewer than twenty paintings survive, yet almost every one changed the course of art. He developed Sfumato, replacing hard outlines with soft gradations, and left thousands of pages of scientific and artistic notes.