Italian artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci was born in what was the Republic of Florence on the 15th of April 1452. Leonardo was a reputed polymath who was active during the Renaissance. His areas of interest spanned a number of fields across both scientific and artistic domains, such as painting, architecture, music, writing, astronomy, botany, history, amongst a number of others. He is considered to be the founding father of a number of disciplines, particularly paleontology and architecture, as well as widely being considered as the 
greatest painter ever to have lived.
Today, Leonardo is best known for his paintings, with Mona Lisa and The Last Supper being his most well-known works. The Last Supper is one of the most reproduced religious paintings of all time as well as featuring in many pieces of fiction, such as The Da Vinci Code. Leonardo’s drawing of the Vitruvian Man is regarded as a cultural icon and has been reproduced on a number of items, such as textbooks, t-shirts, and the euro coin. One of the most impressive aspects of Leonardo’s accomplishments is that he received no formal academic training throughout his life.