In addition to being just about the smartest person ever, Leonardo is reported to have been a strikingly handsome man with great strength and a fine singing voice. And unlike his fellow 15th-century Italians, he was a vegetarian and followed strict dietary rules. In fact, he loved animals so much that he would often buy caged animals at the market just to set them free.

Legend has it that young Leonardo was asked by his father to paint a round shield. Like many teenagers, he thought it would be cool to paint a really creepy head, so he brought in all sorts of vermin -- lizards, bats, maggots, etc. -- and painted a disgusting monster exhaling smoke and poison gas. He was so engrossed in his painting that he failed to notice that his animal specimens had begun to rot, and when he finally allowed his father to see it the man was so startled by its realism that he knew his son could only be an artist.

In an era when left-handedness was considered the devil's work and lefties were often forced to use their right hand, Leonardo was an unrepentant southpaw. It has been suggested that this "difference" was an element of his genius, since his detachment allowed him to see beyond the ordinary. He even wrote backwards, and his writings are easily deciphered only with a mirror.

Twenty-three feet high and weighing nearly 80 tons, a giant bronze sculpture of the late Duke of Milan on horseback proved too challenging even for Leonardo. At first Leonardo was commissioned to make only a life-sized statue, already a difficult task, but his employer, Ludovico Sforza, then decided that the tribute to his father should be four times larger. For years Leonardo studied the movement of horses, making countless sketches, and he devised new casting techniques. Alas, by the time the French invaded Milan and deposed the Duke, Leonardo had succeeded only in making a 22-foot clay model, which the French soldiers used for target practice.

• Su vida

A complete biography about this genius

Su obra

There has never been an artist who was more fittingly, and without qualification, described as a genius. Like Shakespeare, Leonardo came from an insignificant background and rose to universal acclaim. Leonardo was the illegitimate son of a local lawyer in the small town of Vinci in the Tuscan region. His father acknowledged him and paid for his training, but we may wonder whether the strangely self-sufficient tone of Leonardo's mind was not perhaps affected by his early ambiguity of status. The definitive polymath, he had almost too many gifts, including superlative male beauty, a splendid singing voice, magnificent physique, mathematical excellence, scientific daring ... the list is endless

• Su obra

Leonardo da Vinci Museum - A site with his studies and works in: Oil Paintings, Engineering, Futuristic Designs and Drawings

Leonardo da Vinci, his life and some works

Lenardo da Vinci, a man of both worlds