There are few people in the history of the world whose intellect and creative powers are as revered as Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). His voracious appetite for learning and his tremendous powers of observation made him both a great inventor and artist.

Though his name is legendary, many people still do not know about the man himself. Who was Leonardo da Vinci? He was an inventor, engineer, architect, draftsman, artist, and more. He lived around Florence much of his life, making a living working on commissions for both art and engineering.

"BEYOND WHAT THE EYE SEES, REACHING OUT TO WHAT THE HEART FEELS"

For centuries, the ideal had been to make it impossible to see brush strokes altogether. And there was a strict hierarchy of subject matter, with historical and religious scenes at the top moving all the way down to the lowly still-life. The Impressionists came along and changed that. They experimented with brush strokes and painted scenes from everyday life.

The Post-Impressionists picked up on those innovations, but they pushed them even further. A painter like Van Gogh infuses his canvases with lots of life — going beyond what his eye saw and into what his heart felt.

"THE BIRTH OF BEAUTY"

The Birth of Venus gave the Italian Renaissance one of its most important treasures. Painted sometime around 1485, the idyllic vision of Venus arriving from the ocean on a seashell grips us even today.