Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)Leonardo da Vinci: No other personality was so intimidating, no other career so difficult to encompass, so biographers often resort to the assumption that Leonardo embodied some superhuman quality: "il divino". Vasari (a contemporary biographer of Leonardo) writes "there is something supernatural in the accumulation in one individual of so much beauty, grace, and might.With his right hand he could twist an iron horseshoe as if it were made of lead. In his liberality, he welcomed and gave food to any friend, rich or poor." His kindness, his sweet nature, his eloquence ("his speech could bend in any direction the most obdurate of wills") his regal magnanimity, his sense of humor, his love of wild creatures, his "terrible strength in argument, sustained by intelligence and memory," the subtlety of his mind "which never ceased to devise inventions," his aptitude for mathematics, science, music, poetry. What's more, Leonardo was a man of "physical beauty beyond compare." Vetruvian Man: This wonderful work by the master was created in 1492. The original was created on paper with pen, ink, watercolor and metalpoint. It is housed in the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice.
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