Six things you didn’t know about Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath, among others painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer, whose genius epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal.

Six things you may have ignored about Leonardo da Vinci are the following ones:

• He was an accomplished lyre player. When he was first presented at the Milanese court, it was as a musician, not an artist or inventor.
• He could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.
• He  left no definitive image of himself.
• He was the first to explain why the sky is blue. (It’s because of the way air scatters light.)
• He was the love child of Caterina, a peasant, and Ser Piero, a lawyer and landlord. He was homeschooled and lacked a formal education in Greek and Latin.
• The smile of Mona Lisa means she was secretly pregnant (one of the possible theories).