Interesting facts about Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci self portrait

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was a painter, inventor, architect, mathematician, engineer, and student of all things scientific. His natural genius crossed so many disciplines that he epitomized the term “Renaissance man.”

Although being one of the most famous painters in history, only 15 paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci are known to exist.

Leonardo d Vinci is perhaps best known as a painter, with his legendary works including the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, among others.

He painted the Mona Lisa quite possibly the most well-known piece of painted artwork in the entire world.

leonardo Da Vinci monalisa

In 1495, Leonardo Da Vinci began painting The Last Supper on the wall of the refectory (dining hall) of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy, and completed it in 1498.

leonardo_da_vinci-last-supper

Leonardo Da Vinci was the first to explain why the sky is blue.

He could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.

Leonardo da Vinci was a strict vegetarian due to his immense love of animals. He even questioned the morality of eating animals when it was not necessary for health.

He was a prankster, he would put fake wings and horns on lizards to scare people in the Vatican.

Leonardo Da Vinci used to buy caged animals at the market just to set them free.

He wrote in the opposite direction to what is normal, meaning you’d need a mirror to read it properly.

Bill Gates bought Leonardo Da Vinci’s most famous scientific writings, Codex Leicester in 1994 for $30 million USD. A few pages were used as screen saver on Windows 95.

codex-leicester

Contact lenses were first proposed by Leonardo Da Vinci in 1508.

He invented the bicycle 300 years before it appeared on the road.

Leonardo Da Vinci’s last words were: “I have offended God and mankind. My work did not reach the quality it should have.”