Leonardo da Vinci has been called one of the world's few universal geniuses because of his knowledge and abilities in so many different areas of intellectual and artistic pursuit. While perhaps best known as the artist who created the paintings, the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, he also was an accomplished sculptor, engineer, mechanic, inventor and architect. His detailed drawings of the human body linked art with science to provide a means for investigation into the human form and anatomy.

Leonardo was born in 1452 in Vinci, Italy, near the larger city of Florence. He began his formal artistic studies when he was 15, as an apprentice for a local artist named Andrea del Verrocchio. He studied painting, mechanical arts and sculpture, all of which served him well when he started his first job in 1482 as artist and engineer in residence for the duke of Milan, Italy. During his...