Many historians, artists, scientists, writers, inventors and citizens have scrutinized Leonardo da Vinci. His achievements leave no doubt that he possessed the greatest mind the human race has ever spawned. “The greatest mind” can be defined as the mind that held the most potential, the mind that escaped the confines of era, time, prejudice and outdated ideas. Da Vinci illustrates this description with his work on anatomy and invention. We must also understand his psychology in order to fully see the man that Leonardo da Vinci really was. These aspects particularly lend themselves to the intellectual success of Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci was born in a village called Anchiano in Italy on April 15, 1452. His parents were a peasant girl, Caterina, and a successful notary, Ser Piero. Even as a child, Leonardo da Vinci was known for his works of art. He was commissioned to paint a dragon on a shield when he was young, and in order to create his masterpiece, he studied crickets, lizards, bats, butterflies and snakes, putting together parts of each in his painting. The end result was a beautifully frightening legendary dragon. Da Vinci is widely known for his other paintings such as The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, which are two of the most recognized paintings in the world. These paintings might not have been created if he hadn't studied art, but thanks to his apprenticeship with Verrocchio, which began around 1468, da Vinci is a great master. Leonardo da Vinci was by no means a starving artist, as he had very good relations with the French, who paid about 2,000 gold crowns for two years' pension and 560 crowns per year to Leonardo. For the French, as King Louis declared, the Renaissance Man was their "dear and good friend Leonardo da Vinci, our painter...... middle of paper ...... ng supported, carried and beaten. These movements also helped him in his art, defining the muscles used for different tasks. Da Vinci made many seemingly random observations about anatomy. He noticed while studying legs that a man had twice as much strength in his legs as was necessary to support his weight. He also determined that a man would walk with his right foot and swing his left arm forward when walking, just as a four-legged animal would put its left hind leg and right front leg forward. Leonardo da Vinci was also fascinated by the eyes, discovering that every object we see at midnight will appear larger than at noon, because at noon the pupil is smallest. Leonardo da Vinci was fascinated by the human body. Leonardo da Vinci worked diligently on anatomy, exhuming human corpses in order to fully understand how the human body worked..