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[[File: Leonardo 1.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Leonardo’s drawing of Vitruvian Man]]__NOTOC__
Leonardo Da da Vinci (1452-1519) was a critical figure in the late Renaissance. Not only is he regarded as one of the greatest artists who ever lived, but he made remarkable contributions to engineering, architecture, science, urban planning, cartography, philosophy, and anatomy during the Renaissance. While some of this work was done in secret, he also was a prominent artist, architect, and engineer. Leonardo da Vinci was the quintessential Renaissance man.
Leonardo is recognized as making a unique contribution to the Renaissance, that period of time which saw the re-birth of learning and a move to a secular worldview. The Florentine artist and polymath made a decisive contribution to this epoch. He decisively influenced artistic trends in his own time and in the later Renaissance. His interest in science and experiment inspired many humanists to study the world and nature. While he was also a great inventor, but his inventions had little impact, on his own era.
====The life of Why was Leonardo Da Vinciimportant?====
[[File: Leonardo 3.png|200px|thumb|left|Drawing of Leonardo in old age]]
Leonardo was born in 1452, in the village of Vinci, outside the city of Florence. His father was a wealthy lawyer, and his mother was a peasant woman. His parents were not married, and Leonardo was illegitimate, which carried with it a great deal of social stigma at the time. He could not legally bear his father’s surname, and so he was named after his native village, Vinci.<ref> McCurdy, Edward. The mind of Leonardo da Vinci (London, Courier Corporation, 2013), p 4 </ref>
While he received little or no formal education as a child, at 15 he was apprenticed to Andrea del Verrocchio (1435–1488). He was one of the leading artists of his day and was a great influence on the young Leonardo, especially in his dynamic representations of the human figure. After the completion of his apprenticeship, he became an assistant to Verrocchio, and his extraordinary skills became well-known. His artistic style was considered to be extraordinarily original because of his unique use of light and shade. <ref>(McCurdy, p. 34)</ref> In either 1477/1488, Leonardo set up his studio and soon was receiving significant commissions.
In 1499, when the French invaded Italy, Leonardo fled the city and stayed in Venice. Here he was active as a military engineer and drew up plans to create a series of naval defenses. In 1500, Da Vinci, who was by now one of the most famous men in all of Italy, returned to his native Florence. Here he continued to work on several artistic projects, but he appears to have left many uncompleted. Many of the projects from this period are only known from Leonardo’s drawings, which are considered to be masterpieces. In 1506, Leonardo worked for a time as a military engineer for the notorious Cesare Borgia, who was ruthlessly carving a state for himself out of Papal lands in central Italy.
====How did Da Vinci influence on Art?====
[[File: Leonardo 2.jpg|300px350px|thumb|left|Leonardo’s ‘The Last Supper’]]
During the early Renaissance, painting had advanced greatly, because of great artists such as Botticelli and Verrocchio. However, Leonardo was to raise painting to new heights, and his work is not only intrinsically important but very influential. His work was revolutionary because it was so realistic and expressive.
However, at the time, they proved enormously influential on the development of Renaissance sculpture. The Florentine was also interested in architecture and helped to design the cupola for the Cathedral in Milan. He wrote an unpublished treatise on architecture and produced many architectural drawings.<ref>Kemp, Martin. Leonardo da Vinci: the marvelous works of nature and man (Oxford, Oxford, University Press, 2007), p 113</ref> These inspired many architects, including the great Bramante.
====What was How did Leonardo's contribution to da Vinci influence Renaissance science and engineering?====
Da Vinci was fascinated by science, engineering, and mechanics. He wrote about these subjects copiously in his notebooks. His theory of knowledge was based on the study of nature. Leonardo was also intrigued by the human body and he is believed to have dissected up to 30 human bodies and made many anatomical drawings.
During his lifetime Leonardo did encourage some to privilege observation and experiment over the teachings of the Church and the Classics, which was critical in the later phase of the Renaissance. Leonardo helped to change the intellectual environment of the Renaissance to one that was much more modern in outlook.
====Was Leonardo DaVinci da Vinci an inventor? ====
[[File: Leonardo 4.jpg|200px|thumb|left| Anatomical drawings by Leonardo from his Notebook]]
Leonardo was also an inventor and his notebooks are filled with many plans or drafts for inventions. Da Vinci drafted plans for a flying machine, diving suit, parachute, anemometer, armored car, self-propelled car, and even a robotic knight. Leonardo was one of the most prolific inventors in history. None of his inventions were ever developed into practical and working machines. They remained only designs on paper, even though there were ground-breaking ideas.<ref> Gibbs-Smith, Charles Harvard, and Gareth Rees. The inventions of Leonardo da Vinci. Phaidon Press, 1978, p 17</ref>
These ideas were not finished because Leonardo was not very good at finishing projects. He also lacked the resources to put his ideas into practice, such as for his plans for a robotic knight. His designs for various inventions were too far ahead of their time and would not have been understood by his contemporaries. Moreover, the technology was not available to develop his innovative ideas. It was only in later centuries that his designs were appreciated. While Leonardo can be credited with having great ideas, his inventions made little or no impact on the Renaissance. <ref>Gibbs-Smith et al, p. 145</ref>
====ConclusionWhat was Leonardi da Vinci's impact on the World?====
Leonardo is one of the towering figures in the development of the Renaissance and, indeed, Western culture. He was a remarkable man and a genuine polymath who had extraordinary insights and achievements. The Florentine was able to develop new techniques in painting that revolutionized the art form, and it inspired many of the greatest painters of the Renaissance, such as Raphael. Leonardo had a great influence on sculpture and architecture in Italy during his lifetime and after. Leonardo was also a scientist and interested in a wide range of subjects. His scientific discoveries, such as those in anatomy, were kept secret, largely out of fear of the Church.