Leonardo da Vinci was a person.
Leonardo da Vinci . He has been variously called the father of palaeontology , ichnology , and architecture , and is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time . Born out of wedlock to a notary , Piero da Vinci , and a peasant woman , Caterina , in Vinci in the region of Florence , Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter Andrea del Verrocchio . Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan . Ludovico Sforza . He was famed as a patron of Leonardo da Vinci and other artists , and presided over the final and most productive stage of the Milanese Renaissance .