A sketch for Leonardo da Vinci's self-propelling car, which he designed in 1478. It worked loosely on the model of a wind-up toy. Illustration of Da Vinci's Lifting Gear Machine. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 - May 2, 1519) was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. He has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.