Leonardo was interested in many different subjects – biology, botany, engineering, geology and mathematics. He wrote thousands of pages of notebooks in which he kept his ideas. He wrote left- handed backwards so it was difficult to read what he wrote.
At the time, Leonardo did not contribute to changes in science because people could not understand what was written in the notebooks.
Helicopter Parachute
How do these show that Leonardo was well ahead of his time?
Tank
Wing detail Assessing Your Learning
1. Where was Leonardo da Vinci trained as an apprentice? 2. Where did he paint The Last Supper? 3. Who was Mona Lisa? 4. Explain sfumato. 5. What other painting technique did Leonardo use? 6. Why are his notebooks difficult to read? 7. Why, do you think, there are only 15–20 paintings done by Leonardo?