Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 in the Tuscan town of Vinci, the illegitimate son of a notary and a peasant woman. He received little formal education, spoke no Latin fluently, and never attended university. And yet, he became one of the most accomplished minds in human history.

Painter, engineer, anatomist, architect, inventor, musician, and relentless observer, Leonardo embodied a way of thinking that modern categories still struggle to contain. He did not see art and science as separate pursuits. For him, they were different expressions of the same impulse: to understand how the world works.

An Artist Who Thought Like a Scientist

Leonardo is best known for masterpieces such as The Last Supper and Mona Lisa, but his paintings were only a fraction of his output. He painted slowly, obsessively, often leaving works unfinished. This was not laziness, but curiosity interrupting itself. A face would lead him to anatomy. Light would lead him to optics. Motion would lead him to mechanics.

He dissected human bodies to understand musculature, tendons, and expression. He studied water flow to paint rivers accurately. He observed birds not for poetry, but to understand flight.

Art, for Leonardo, was applied knowledge.

Notebooks of a Restless Mind

Leonardo left behind thousands of pages of notebooks filled with sketches, questions, diagrams, and half-formed ideas. They range from designs for flying machines and armoured vehicles to detailed studies of plants, skulls, and whirlpools.

What makes these notebooks extraordinary is not that Leonardo was always right, he wasn’t, but that he asked better questions than almost anyone of his time. He wrote to understand, not to publish. Many of his discoveries remained unknown for centuries simply because he never felt the need to announce them.

He worked in mirror writing, not to be cryptic, but because it suited how his mind moved across the page.

Engineering the Future Before It Arrived

Leonardo imagined machines centuries ahead of their time: parachutes, helicopters, tanks, automated looms, and hydraulic systems. Most were never built, but the thinking behind them was sound. He understood principles of lift, leverage, friction, and force long before formal physics existed to describe them.

Crucially, Leonardo did not invent for conquest alone. He was as interested in diverting rivers and improving cities as he was in weapons. His engineering was rooted in possibility rather than dominance.

A Life Without Completion

Leonardo’s life frustrates modern productivity culture. He abandoned projects, changed patrons, followed interests wherever they led. And yet, his influence is unmatched. His greatness lies not in output alone, but in approach.

He believed experience outranked authority. Observation outranked tradition. Curiosity outranked certainty.

In many ways, Leonardo represents the road not taken by modern specialisation — a reminder that human intelligence is at its most powerful when it refuses neat boundaries.

Is Leonardo still relevant today?

Absolutely! Leonardo da Vinci is iconic because he modeled a way of being curious that is still radical today. He shows us that creativity and rigour are not opposites, that imagination thrives on discipline, and that asking “why?” is often more important than delivering answers. Sure, he had shoulders of giants to stand upon. But he took creative thinking and problem solving to a whole new level.

He is not just a historical figure. He is the benchmark by which all innovators are judged, the one human who has inspired inventors for centuries. He showed us to look more closely, to learn more broadly and to never stop wondering how things work. He taught us to apply curiosity to innovation.

Online resources

• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Leonardo da Vinci
  – Authoritative overview of his life, work, and historical significance.
• Wikipedia: Leonardo da Vinci
  – Comprehensive biography with links to artworks, notebooks, and legacy.
• LeonardoDaVinci.net
  – Accessible summaries of his inventions, art, and scientific studies.
• Royal Collection Trust: Leonardo da Vinci
  – High-quality digitised drawings and notebooks from the Royal Collection.
• The Louvre: Leonardo da Vinci
  – Context on his paintings, including the Mona Lisa, and his time in France.
• The Met Museum: Leonardo da Vinci
  – Scholarly but readable essays on his art and techniques.
• BBC: Leonardo da Vinci
  – Articles, documentaries, and cultural reflections.
• V&A Museum: Leonardo da Vinci
  – Design, engineering, and creative context from a modern perspective.