Leonardo da Vinci epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal by studying classical antiquity.
Leonardo da Vinci . Sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute , helicopter and tank , he epitomised the Renaissance humanist ideal . Renaissance humanism is the study of classical antiquity , at first in Italy and then spreading across Western Europe in the 14th , 15th , and 16th centuries . Humanism was a pervasive cultural mode and not the program of a small elite , a program to revive the cultural legacy , literary legacy , and moral philosophy of classical antiquity .