Legendary
Explore @leonardo_da_vinci
  • Profile
  • Knowledge Hub
  • Achievements
  • Ask

Focusing…

Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci@leonardo_da_vinci
Neurofolio © 2026

Build your portfolio.
Then make it all happen.

AboutPricingChangelogFor recruiters
Privacy PolicyTerms of ServiceContact

© 2026 Neurofolio, Inc. All rights reserved.

Knowledge Focus
Open in a page

All areas9 of 20 fields

Dominant Visual Arts Focus

Painting & Drawing · Art Movements & Galleries · Sculpture & Installation

Generated 6 days ago227
Ask
@leonardo_da_vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

I work as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor and architect, and I keep notebooks that join art and science across anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography and painting.

AboutExperienceCasesThinkingBeyond
Proof · case studies

Cases

The situation, the work, the outcome. Ranked by how much the work proves.

1

I dissected cadavers and drew a foetus in utero

1510 — 1511
Situation
Anatomical study I began under Verrocchio, who demanded it of his students, deepened through hospital dissections and a 1510–1511 collaboration with Marcantonio della Torre of the University of Pavia.
Action
With permission to dissect at Santa Maria Nuova in Florence and later in Milan and Rome, I made more than 240 detailed anatomical drawings and about 13,000 words toward a treatise on anatomy.
Outcome
My anatomy began as knowledge for art and became research and science in its own right, including one of the first scientific drawings of a foetus in utero.
anatomydissectionscientific drawing
Open card
2

I designed the Gran Cavallo, a colossal bronze horse

1482 — 1494
Situation
One of many projects for the Sforza court in Milan, alongside pageants, a Milan Cathedral cupola model and the Last Supper.
Action
For Ludovico Sforza I designed an equestrian monument to Francesco Sforza larger than Donatello's Gattamelata or Verrocchio's Colleoni, completed the model and planned the casting in detail.
Outcome
I can carry sculpture and design to a scale no Renaissance workshop had reached, down to the plans for casting it.
sculpturebronze castingdesign
Open card
3

How I draw a machine's anatomy in exploded view

1482 — 1519

I drew machines the way I drew bodies, producing the first form of the modern technical drawing and a perfected exploded view that shows internal components; my engineering studies fill over 5,000 pages.

engineeringtechnical drawingexploded view
Open card
4

I mapped Imola and the Chiana Valley for Borgia

1502 — 1502
Situation
Military engineering after the fall of Milan: first defending Venice from naval attack in 1499–1500, then travelling Italy with Cesare Borgia in 1502.
Action
In 1502 I made a town plan of Imola that won me the post of Cesare Borgia's chief military engineer and architect, then a map of the Chiana Valley for his strategic position.
Outcome
Accurate drawing is a technology of power: a single map got me hired as a chief engineer.
cartographymilitary engineeringengineering
Open card
5

How I build sfumato, the smoke in the Mona Lisa

1503 — 1519

In the Mona Lisa I developed sfumato, "Leonardo's smoke": oils blended on the surface so no brushstroke shows, with shadowed corners of mouth and eyes that leave the smile unresolved.

paintingsfumatooil technique
Open card
6

I painted the moment of betrayal in The Last Supper

1490 — 1499
Situation
A ducal commission in Milan in the 1490s, under Ludovico Sforza, painted on a monastery refectory wall while the convent's prior pressed me to finish.
Action
For the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan I painted the instant after Jesus says "one of you will betray me", designing each disciple's reaction as art built from expression and gesture.
Outcome
My art turns a single spoken line into a whole composition of reactions; that design and characterisation is what earned the acclaim.
paintingcompositioncharacterisation
Open card