Leonardo da Vinci was known as "The Renaissance Man" for his natural genius as a painter, architect, inventor, and student of all things scientific. A famed artist, inventor and thinker, Da Vinci’s interests ranged far beyond fine art. He studied nature, mechanics, anatomy, physics, architecture, weaponry and more, often creating accurate, workable designs for machines like the bicycle, helicopter, submarine and military tank that would not come to fruition for centuries. He changed the world of painting with his Sfumato style blending, a technique of fine shading that produces soft, imperceptible transitions between colours and tones. Sfumato means “fumo” (smoke, fume); soft, vague or blurred. It was the first time lines were not used to create a figure in a painting.