Leonardo da Vinci: Sketches and PaintingsIntroduction: The Beginnings of the Jack of All TradesLeonardo da Vinci is considered by many to be one of the most influential people to have graced this planet. He was, in the modern sense of the term, a jack of all trades; scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer (NA 2014). Leonardo is also the author of two world-famous works, The Mona Lisa (1500, Louvre, Paris) and The Last Supper (1489, Milan, Italy), as well as numerous drawings, sketches and anatomical studies. Many of Leonardo's achievements went unnoticed for many years, some of them were and still are considered "lost Leonardo" (Sooke 2013). According to Joy Sperling (2003) and Harry Hahn (1953), Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 in the small hillside country of Tuscany in Italy (Hahn 1953). However, when Hahn (1953) raises the possibility of a date of Leonardo's birth, he states that for other historians this date fluctuates. Two examples he uses are those of Giorgio Vasari, who stated that "Leonardo was born in 1445" (Hahn 1953) and Sebastiano Resta claimed that he was born in 1467 (Hahn 1953). His biological father married the daughter of a nobleman, Albiera di Giovanni Amadori, and because of this marriage, da Vinci remained under the care of his grandfather (Hahn 1953) until he was 13 and moved to Florence, Italy (Sperling 2003). Under the care of his grandfather, Leonardo was subjected to harsh discipline and developed an interest in nature, much of which was reflected later in his career as well as when he discovered the sights and smells of the countryside (see photo 1; Hahn 1953). ).So much so that in a letter to Giuliano de' Medici he stated that he...... middle of paper ......'not capable of doing his dissections in depth (Sooke 2013 ). Toward the end of his life, he focused primarily on the heart and embryology, or the valves of the heart, and conducted multiple experiments to see how the heart worked, pumped, breathed, and moved (Sooke 2013). Leonardo did all this while some of his students and some of the people who admired him were asking him to publish it. Much of what Leonardo discovered in his dissections was lost after his death until 1690, when almost all of his anatomical studies ended up in the Royal Collection (Sooke 2013). Some of the topics he discussed, however, were not discussed again until the 20th century, when modern medicine emerged (Sooke 2013). Left-HandyOne of the most interesting discoveries is that in his journals and sketchbooks, Leonardo began writing upside down. Infamous works of art