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) wrote, "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."

Below, one of da Vinci's most famous works: 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. You can purchase reproductions of Vetruvian Man in my online store.

Vetruvian Man

Leonardo da Vinci's 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: all these qualities combine to make it difficult to separate the myth from the man.

What's more, Leonardo was noted as possessing "physical beauty beyond compare." While depictions of da Vinci's beauty are scant, he has left us with images of what he, perhaps, considered beautiful. Below: Angelo Incarnato, a little-known sketch by Leonardo da Vinci. While we might consider it to be rather shocking, it has been authenticated. The discoloration about the erect penis is evidence of an attempt to erase it.

Angelo Incarnato